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HEROES OF MODERN AFRICA 




The Bombardment of Algiers 



W hen Lord Exmouth attacked this den of piracy and cruelty, even the British women 
served at the same guns as their husbands, and never shrank. 



HEROES OF 
MODERN AFRICA 

TRUE STORIES OF THE INTREPID BRAVERY AND 

STIRRING ADVENTURES OF THE PIONEERS, 

EXPLORERS, AND FOUNDERS OF 

MODERN AFRICA 



BY 

EDWARD GILLIAT, M.A. (Oxon.) 

SOMETIME MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL 
AUTHOR OF "FOREST OUTLAWS," "HEROES OF MODERN INDIA, 



WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 



PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

LONDON : SEELEY, SERVICE «S^ CO. LTD. 

1911 



PREFACE 

THE list of English heroes who have given their 
life-work, and in many cases their lives, to the 
exploration and development of Africa is a long one. The 
following chapters contain the stories of some explorers, 
naval and military commanders, and administrators, but 
do not include for the most part philanthropists and 
missionaries, who will probably be dealt with in another 
volume in the future. The writer has attempted to give 
sufficient detail and colour to attract the reader and make 
him wish to know more ; so, names of books that have 
been consulted are mentioned at the end of each chapter. 

The exploration of Africa, begun by Greece and Rome, 
has been carried on also by Moslem Arabs, by the Portu- 
guese, the Dutch, and later by the French and Germans, 
as well as by ourselves. It seems as if unknown Africa 
would shortly be reduced to a small area, and the long 
list of explorers and discoverers must soon be completed ; 
but there is yet room in the world for men of enterprise 
who will go forth to keep order among men and the 
lower animals, to organise a higher civilisation, to combat 
diseases, and teach the natives the truths of science and 
religion. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
CHAPTER I 

JAMBS BRUCE 



PAGE 



The earliest explorers — Portuguese missions — Bruce at Harrow — 
Studies law — To London — Marries at twenty-four — Wife dies 
young in Paris — To Algiers as Consul — Studies Arabic — To 
Syria and Egypt and Red Sea — Arab friends — Poses as beggar 
— Massowah — Perils — Shoots with a candle — Source of Blue Nile 
— Friend of the King — Nubian desert — A narrow escape — 
Home — Story not believed — Second wife — His writings — Death 
by accident 19 



CHAPTER II 

SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

Mauritius and Ceylon — Black Sea — Marries twice — Goes with 
second wife to help Speke — Atbara and Nile — A great hunter — 
Meets Speke — Stops a mutiny by help of wife — Kamrasi's offer 
to exchange wives — Finds Albert Nyanza — Home — Knighted — 
Under Ismail 38 



CHAPTER III 

SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

Sent down from Oxford — To India — Languages — Treatise on use of 
bayonet— To Mecca — Somaliland as Hadji — Crimea — Beards 
— Lord Stratford de Redcliffe — With Speke to Central Lakes — 
Fever — Tanganyika — Speke leaves him ill — Home — Marries — 
Fernando Po — Visits Abomey — Up the Congo — Consul at 
Damascus — Trieste 51 

9 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

SPEKE AND GEANT 

PAGE 

Zanzibar — Hunting — The freed slave — Negro gentlemen — Speke 
leaves Grant lame and visits Uganda — M'tesa's severe rule and 
love of sport — 200 wives — Grant follows in a stretcher — Source 
of the Nile — Speke thought to be a cannibal — Home ... 72 

CHAPTER V 

JOSEPH THOMSON 

Educated in a stone quarry — Fired by story of Livingstone — To 
Edinburgh as student — To East Africa with Keith-Johnston — 
His leader dies, and Thomson leads on to Tanganyika — Home 
welcome — To Zanzibar to explore for coal — Masailand — Mount 
Kenia — The Nyanza — Niger Hinterland — Atlas Mountains — Ill- 
health 89 

CHAPTER VI 

STANLEY AND EMIN 

Ismail's conquests — Kise of Mahdi — Emin posted by Gordon — Fall 
of Khartoum — Stanley asked to rescue Emin — Goes up the 
Congo — The old steamers — Tippu-Tib — The lost brother — The 
dark forest — Poisoned skewers — Panga Falls — Dwarfs — Deserters 
— Randy, the terrier — Out into the sun — Nyanza, but no Emin — 
Builds a fort — Emin comes at last — Indecision of Emin — Back 
to find the rear-guard — Famine — Mutiny — Home . . . 104 

CHAPTER VII 

WALTEE MONTAGU KEER 

Travels alone from Cape to Zambezi — Calls on Lobengula — Makes 
fetish — Chuza's heart is sore — The fly — A lion purrs — Tette- 
men desert — Angoni — Livingstone Mission — All dead — Other 
journeys 126 

y GEOGAN AND SHAEP 

A Cambridge student — Walks from Cape to Cairo — Ujiji — Big game 

— The Dinkas — Geysers— Hits the Nile and so home . . .138 

CHAPTER VIII 

SIE HENEY MOETON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

Early life and hardships — Kuns away — To New Orleans — Adopted — 
A soldier — Journalist — Sent to look for Livingstone — Finds him 
alive — Down the Congo — Founds the Free State — Rescues 
Emin— Marries Miss Tennant— M.P. — Many writings . . . 142 

10 



CONTENTS 



PART II 

CHAPTER IX 

ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

PAGE 

Pellew of Cornwall — Canada — Friend or foe ? — Takes the Cleopatra 
— Knighted — Saves ships from mutiny — India — Made Baron — 
Ordered to Algiers — The defences — Accurate firing — Dutch 
allies — Fire and storm — Slaves freed — Made Viscounty . . 159 

CHAPTER X 

LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

Service in India and China — Abyssinian War — Sepoys help British 
— Difficult march — Sufferings of animals — A dour Good Friday 
— A touch and go — Suicide of King Theodore — Home with 
honour — A nation's thanks 175 

CHAPTER XI 

LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

His family — Burma — Crimea — Indian Mutiny — Bed Kiver Expedi- 
tion — Ashantee War — Boad-making through the forest — The 
King — The scared sentry — Fetish and frights — The Black 
Watch — Coomassie burnt 195 

CHAPTER XII 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

Whittlesea Yeomanry — Spain — War and love — America and Water- - 
loo — Juana's ride — Harry's ride to Grahamstown — Hintza shot 
— Smith recalled — Rain-makers — Aliwal —Governor of the Cape 
—Boers rebel — Recalled again — Loved by colonists and natives 215 

CHAPTER XIII 

CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

The Zulus and their army — Lord Chelmsford finds his camp taken — 
Chivalry of officers — Rorke's Drift attacked — Defended against 
odds — Prince Imperial killed — Victory of Ulundi . . . 232 

11 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIV 

COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

PAGE 

Bedford — Harrow — Dresden — The "Blues"— A strong giant— Don 
Carlos — Sudan and Gordon — To Khiva — At Plevna fights 
Eussians — At El-Teb — Joins Wolseley on the Nile — A kicking 
camel — " Boys will be boys " — Wounded animals — The gap in 
the square — Heroic death 246 

CHAPTER XV 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

Eton — Scots Guards' training — To Somaliland for big game — Uganda 
rifles — Slave-raiders — Nigeria — Fulani and the shepherd kings 
— Sir G. Goldie's campaign — Haussa daring — To Cairo — Atbara 
— Omdurman — Boer War — Paardeberg — Joins Irish Guards — 
Shot 264 

CHAPTER XVI 

LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

The training of an army — General A. Hunter — The zereba stormed — 
The Berber triumph — Battle of Omdurman — A gun-boat saves 
the camel corps — The Lancers ride to death — MacDonald's drill 
saves the day — A Gordon requiem — Khalifa dies — Cape Town — 
March to Pretoria— Peace, 1902 279 



PART III 

CHAPTER XVII 

SIR BARTLE PRERE, BART., G.O.B., F.R.S. 

Bath and Bitton — Governor of Bombay — Bank failure — Zanzibar and 
slaves — With Prince of Wales in India — Cape — Zulu unrest — 
Boer discontent — Frere censured — Basutos rebel/ . . . 295 

CHAPTER XVIII 

CECIL RHODES 

A vicar's son — To Natal — Tries to grow cotton — Diamonds found — 
Oxford and Oriel — Beads on the veldt — Buys up claims — M.P. 
and friend of the Dutch — In Basutoland with Gordon — 
Premier — Matabele War — Jameson's Raid — Goes unarmed 
amongst natives— Meets the Kaiser — Siege of Kimberley — His 
will 308 

12 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEK XIX 

J. T. BENT, F.S.A., AND MASHONALAND 

PAGE 

A Puritan Chief — The desert — Strange food — Khama's ideal rule — 
Children of the Sun — The Lundi in spate— Semitic origins — 
Sun worship — Land of Ophir 328 

CHAPTER XX 

EVELYN BAEING, LOKD CBOMEE, G.C.B. 

Ismail's debts — Arabi's revolt — Evelyn Baring as soldier, aide-de- 
camp, Indian Secretary — Consul-General at Cairo — Lord 
Milner on his chief — The Nile and the barrage — A pathetic 
story — The iron hand in the silken glove 338 



13 



ERRATUM 

By mistake the following acknowledgment was omitted 
at p. 196 :— 

From The Story of a Soldier's Life, by Lord Wolseley, 
by the kind permission of Messrs. Constable & Co., Ltd. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Bombardment of Algiers Frontispiece 

Bruce's Short Method with the Arab 24 

Bruce and the Wild Horse 32 

The King op the Desert 49 

The Trail op the Slave-hunters 66 

Speke on the Brink op the Nile 74 

Speke and the Hostile Natives 86 

Thomson's Narrow Escape 98 

Baboons Returning prom a Raid 122 v 

Amazon Warriors 154 

King Theodore 186 

Smith and the Rain-makers 226 

ISANDHLWANA 238 

Dragging a Gun across a Stream . . . . . . 282 

Surrender op Cronje 288 

Rhodes and the Matabele Warriors 322 



15 



PART I 

HEROES OF EXPLORATION 



HEROES 

OF 

MODERN AFRICA 

CHAPTER I 

JAMES BRUCE 

IT is strange that Africa, which boasts the oldest of 
civilisations in Egypt, should be one of the last con- 
tinents to yield up its secrets to the explorer and 
geographer. Perhaps the burning sands of its waterless 
deserts, and the deadly fevers bred in its river valleys, may 
have secured for it that age-long seclusion. The savants of 
Memphis, Thebes, and On, whose earliest forerunners lived 
some four thousand years before our era, only smiled 
inscrutably at the inquisitive Greek historian, Herodotus, 
when he pestered them with questions concerning the 
source of their sacred river. To them there were deep 
questions of life and death and immortality which far 
out-clamoured the materialistic probings of that teller of 
tales. 

But the Egyptians were not all immured in religion and 
the " Book of the Dead " ; for, two hundred years before 
Herodotus visited the cities on the Nile, Pharaoh Necho had 
been prompted, about 600 B.C., to solve some of the mysteries 
of the South land ; and, if Herodotus had not heard the 
results, no doubt the priests of Isis and Horus may have 
explained to him how the learned Pharaoh sent Phoenician 

19 



JAMES BRUCE 

navigators at his own cost down the Red Sea and along the 
East Coast of Africa till they doubled the Cape and reap- 
peared after three years by the Pillars of Hercules, and so 
through the Mediterranean back to Tyre and home. 

Again, we know that about five hundred years B.C., 
Hanno, the Carthaginian admiral, was sent by order of the 
Senate to plant colonies on the Western Coast of Africa. 
They sailed southwards in sixty ships, as the Greek trans- 
lator of the admiral's journal informs us, and landed many 
times in the far-away regions of the crocodile and the 
gorilla ; they saw with a strange alarm how the hilltops 
were alight with beacons, and they heard the wild clang of 
the tocsin as their fleet appeared off coast or headland. 

How far they sailed we cannot be sure, some think to 
the coast of Guinea. 

Again, Rome under Nero sent out two centurions in 
command of an exploring party to ascend the Nile ; 
who, with the help of the King of Abyssinia, reached 
the vast marshes above the junction of the White Nile 
and the Sobat ; after them for eighteen centuries no 
European ever visited those regions. In the fourteenth 
century Ibn Basuta, of Tangiers, made a long journey 
inland from Fez and saw the Niger. Other Arabians 
followed his example, notably Leo Africanus. 

Then the Portuguese in the fifteenth century took up 
the adventurous enterprise under the guidance of Prince 
Henry, the navigator ; they made a friend of the King of the 
Congo, and sent missionaries to convert his people. Vasco da 
Gam a doubled the Cape, and reached Mombasa on the East 
Coast, but we cannot do more than mention his name. 

The first great explorer of British blood was James 
Bruce of Kinnaird, in the county of Stirling, who was born 
in 1730, and inherited from his mother a weakness of lung. 
But he shot up quickly in height, and was tall when, at the 

20 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

age of twelve, he was sent to Harrow School, then under the 
mastership of Dr. Cox. 

Two years later a letter was sent to Brace's father by 
Dr. Glen, in which he wrote of his son James, " I never 
saw so fine a lad of his years in my life," and Dr. Cox 
remarked to him, " When you write to Mr. Brace's father 
about his son, you cannot say too much ; for he is as 
promising a young man as ever I had under my care, and 
for his years I never saw his fellow." 

Bruce remained at Harrow four years, studying the 
classics and making valuable friends ; but he had out- 
grown his strength, being already above six feet high ; 
and his uncle, Counsellor Hamilton, on seeing and hearing 
him, wrote to his father, " He is a mighty good youth, a 
very good scholar, and extremely good-tempered ; has good 
solid sense and a good understanding ... he inclines to 
the profession of a clergyman, for which he has a well-fitted 
gravity." 

Bruce, the six-foot-four explorer, the dare-devil who 
kept every savage in awe — a most grave and reverend 
student of divinity ! 

But his father preferred the law for him, and sent for him 
to Scotland in May 1747. At home he ranged the hills and 
grew stronger ; in the autumn he got his first taste of field 
sports and lost some of his gravity. But the study of 
Scottish law did not agree with him after grouse-shooting, 
and his physician ordered him home for fresh air and exer- 
cise. " Oh ! but he is a bonnie laddie," said the ghillie, 
looking up into the frank face of the young giant, "and 
I will mak 1 a man of him yet." 

By the time he was twenty-two he had gained his full 
height, and was no longer a meditative invalid pondering 
over the probability of an early death. He felt within 
him the power and the will to do something in the world : 

21 



JAMES BRUCE 

he wished for a writership in the East India Company, but 
was above the age for admittance. 

So he went to London to ask permission from the Court 
of Directors to trade under its patronage. 

One of his old Harrow friends soon introduced him to 
Adriana Allan, a beautiful and gifted girl, the daughter of a 
rich wine merchant. As James Bruce was so soon to go to 
India, Adriana received his attentions with artless apprecia- 
tion ; the result being that Jamie thought it best to take a 
share in the wine trade, not omitting a partnership with 
Adriana. Her mother, now a widow, consented, and they 
were married in 1754, when Bruce was only twenty-four years 
old. But a great happiness of a few years' duration was 
broken by the early death of his young wife from consump- 
tion while they were at Paris. Bruce, after the funeral, rode 
away on horseback all night in the rain, and by the time 
he arrived at Boulogne was in a high fever. Frequent 
bleedings ended in a violent pain in his breast, and he 
returned to his business in London with little zest for 
affairs. To take off sad thoughts he began to read books 
of travel ; then an idea occurred to him — why should he not 
find the source of the Nile ? He fagged at Spanish and 
Portuguese and drawing, and not long did he tarry in 
London, but set off for Portugal and Spain and France 
and Germany. At Brussels he was challenged to fight a 
duel, and after wounding his antagonist twice, thought it 
wise to leave for Holland ; he was just in time to see the 
battle of Crevelt, and was vastly interested to witness a little 
real warfare : this experience hardened him in his resolve to 
seek more lions in the path of exploration. 

But at Rotterdam a letter was brought him announcing 
the death of his father, and he at once returned to England. 

He had succeeded to the paternal estate at Kinnaird, 
but remained three years longer in London, winding-up 

22 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

his business and studying Arabic and Ethiopic and the 
geography of Abyssinia. It was evident to his friends 
that he was wishing to seek the source of the Nile in 
Abyssinia, that land of mystery and mountain. 

Just then coal mines were found in his Scotch property : 
his income was increased, and he could afford to travel far. 
But he had suggested in a letter to Mr. Pitt how easy it 
would be, in war-time, to capture Ferrol ; Pitt sent for 
Bruce, and asked him to draw up a memorandum. This 
brought him to the notice of Lord Halifax, who one day 
suggested that it would be a fine thing to explore Barbary 
or the course of the Nile. Bruce leapt at the idea, but just 
then he was offered the consulship at Algiers ; King George 
the Third received him kindly, and requested him to make 
accurate drawings of any ruins he fell in with. So he 
travelled leisurely through France and Italy, improving 
his drawing faculties and his taste and his study of 
astronomy. He was carefully preparing himself for the 
great work of his life. 

But his stay in Algiers was not long ; for the Dey of 
Algiers, Ali Pasha, a wicked, old tyrant, was bent on slighting 
Bruce as well as the other consuls : amongst other things he 
had made a slave of an English sailor, and refused at Brace's 
request to release him ; nay, he even produced the poor man 
for Bruce to see how he had been hacked, mangled, and 
bruised, and to show how the Dey cared neither for the 
King of England nor his consul. 

Bruce wrote home and suggested that the only reason or 
argument that the Dey would respect was a show of force ; 
but the home Government did not think it worth while ; so 
the Dey proceeded to bastinado the English consul's mes- 
sengers and the captain of his despatch boat in such a 
manner that the blood gushed out. 

While Bruce was waiting for a reply from Lord Halifax, 

23 



JAMES BRUCE 

he was studying Arabic and Moorish at every leisure moment, 
conversing with the natives, and sketching old ruins. When 
the reply did come, it was so unsatisfactory that Bruce 
begged to resign his commission as consul. 

We must hurry over his next travels : he visited Tunis, 
Crete, Rhodes, Palmyra and Baalbec, Cyprus and Egypt. 
He suffered shipwreck and was saved by swimming, only to 
be stripped and beaten by Arabs ; but he persevered in his 
intention to find the source of the Nile some day. In July 
1768 he reached Cairo, where he posed as a dervish skilled 
in medicine, as indeed he was ; he made friends with the 
Greek Patriarch of the Convent of St. George, and obtained 
letters to the Greek Christians in Abyssinia ; then, in 
December, he took a boat up the Nile, and noticed that the 
monasteries of the Coptic Christians dared not sow their 
land, for they knew it would only expose them to the 
violence of the Arabs. 

He visited ancient Thebes and its sepulchres and sketched 
some of the paintings there, then on to Karnac and Luxor, 
where he prescribed for the Sheikh and obtained his blessing : 
" Cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you." Bruce 
revealed to his new friends, Ababde Arabs, that he was 
hoping to visit Abyssinia, a country from which no stranger 
was allowed to return ; and all took the oath to help 
" Yagoube," as they called Bruce, in the tell or in the desert. 
On the 16th of February 1769, Bruce joined a caravan to 
cross the desert to the Red Sea. It was burning hot on the 
sand : no living herb or animal or bird was to be seen. Next 
they reached hills of green and red marble and red sand. 
Bruce writes, "In four days we passed more granite, 
porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build Rome, 
Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, and half-a-dozen such cities. " 
At length they came to Cosseir, a mud- walled village on the 
shore of the Red Sea, where, as he showed the firman of the 

24 




Bruce's Short Method with the Arab 



The Scotsman was a man of great stature and immense strength. He seized the Arab 
who was inciting his companions to attack the explorer and flung him ten or twelve feet 
away. 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

Grand Seignior and the letter of the Bey of Cairo, he was 
treated with great respect. 

But during his stay here four hundred Ababde Arabs 
came in on camels, and taking Brace's Arab, Abd-el-gin, for 
an enemy of theirs they put a rope round his neck to cut his 
throat outside the walls. 

Bruce, on being told of the danger of his servant, vaulted 
on his horse and rode two miles in pursuit. A crowd of Arabs 
whom he overtook came round him, gabbling dire threats. 

" Salaam alicum," said Bruce, " we are friends : where is 
your chief ? " 

They pointed to a black tent which had a long spear 
thrust up in the end of it. 

" I met Ibrahim, the Sheik's son, at the door of the tent. 
At first he did not recognise me ; but I took hold of the 
pillar of the tent and said, 6 Fiardac 1 1 when he cried, 
4 What ! are you Yagoube, our physician and friend ? and 
my people are about to kill your servant, you say ? Verily, 
God renounce me and mine, if it is as you say ; if one of 
them hath touched but the hair of his head, that man shall 
never drink of the Nile again.' " 

Thereat order was sent to release the Arab servant, and 
the incident closed with good feeling on both sides. 

Bruce had proved that he dared to face danger in 
defence of his servants, and the Arabs respected him for it. 

He now explored the coast, crossed the Gulf, encountered 
a storm, and cut the mainsail into shreds with a knife whilst 
his skipper was muttering his prayers to a local saint. At 
the port of Jidda he appeared before the English consul 
shaking with ague, weather-beaten and in rags. 

He was treated as a beggar, for he was too ill to explain 
matters, and fell asleep on a mat in the cook's quarters. 

Meanwhile the Vizier, wishing to see what so wretched a 
tramp should have in his trunks, opened them at the hinges, 

25 



JAMES BRUCE 

and stood aghast at his own temerity when the first thing he 
saw was the firman of the Grand Seignior powdered with 
gold dust and wrapped in green taffeta ; next he found a 
white satin bag addressed to the Khan of Tartary ! then a 
green and gold silk bag with letters directed to the Sheriff 
of Mecca ! and last of all he found a letter addressed to 
himself by Ali Bey of Cairo, written with all the arrogant 
superiority of a prince to a slave, and ending with an in- 
timation that if he neglected the noble Bruce he, the Bey 
of Cairo, would punish the affront at the very gates of 
Mecca. The Vizier turned pale. " Nail up those boxes," he 
cried peevishly ; " why did ye slaves not tell me the stranger 
was a great personage ? " The terrified Vizier mounted his 
horse and rode at a gallop to the English factory. His 
suite scampered about, crying, "Where is the English 
nobleman ? has any one seen him ? " 

They only found, as it seemed, his servant yawning on a 
mat ; but the Vizier approached and said, " Where is your 
master ? " " In Heaven ! " replied Bruce calmly, stretching 
forth one long arm. " Not dead, surely ? the noble Bruce is 
not dead, I hope ? " " Oh ! dear, no ! I am not dead — only 
dead tired, my friend " ; and the giant shook himself, got up 
and bowed with dignity. The courtyard was full of gaping 
Arabs and Turks : the story soon brought hundreds to see 
the big and noble stranger. Then followed great joy and 
rich banquets, and offers of help in entering Abyssinia. 
Finally he sailed for Massowah, the port of Abyssinia, not as 
a beggar, but as a prince, with the compliment of a salute 
from the fort. He spent seventeen days in reaching 
Massowah, but he used most of the time in surveying the 
islands and coast, taking latitude and longitude, finding the 
depth of the harbours and determining the currents. All 
these observations were then entirely new, and were of 
utmost value to succeeding traders. 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

Hitherto nothing had been known of the interior of 
Africa, exeept by a few missionaries, who seldom returned to 
give any account of their labours. Bruce made many in- 
teresting observations on the climate and geology of 
Abyssinia : he noted that a belt of some eleven hundred miles 
on each side of the Equator was periodically deluged with 
rain, and that this region was covered with enormous trees 
and climbing shrubs ; here the flamingo and heron, crane 
and duck, goose and plover, kingfisher and the fishing-eagle 
held their revels, while the air vibrated with the song of 
myriads of little birds. It sounds delightful ; but we still 
have to reckon with the mosquito, the ant, the crocodile, 
and the fever. 

Abyssinia, which country Bruce was now about to enter, 
being the oldest monarchy in Africa, lies in the middle of 
the north torrid zone : it contains enormous forests and 
rugged mountains, which run parallel with the Red Sea ; the 
Blue Nile rises within its frontiers ; the rains are of tropical 
violence, and are attended by the presence of myriad flies 
that for six months render that part of the land which they 
infest almost intolerable to the life of man or animal. 

The low, flat country is occupied by the Shangalla, the 
ancient Ethiopians, pagans black and naked, living in 
forests upon the game they catch : they are all archers from 
boyhood, sober and manly. 

But when a new king mounted the throne of Abyssinia, 
it was the custom for the mountain-bred Abyssinians to 
hunt the Shangalla, kill the men, and carry off the boys 
and girls to become their slaves. 

Besides these races there is a shepherd race, the Galla, 
who ride on horseback, swim wide rivers, eat raw meat, and 
are generally Mahometans. 

About 1550 Ignatius Loyola persuaded the Pope to 
send a mission to Massowah, to convert the Abyssinians ; the 

n 



JAMES BRUCE 

Portuguese followed this up by later missions, although a 
form of Coptic Christianity had been introduced from 
Alexandria in the fourth century — a form which soon 
became degraded into gross superstitions. The older Coptic 
priests stirred up the people to resist Rome, and the 
Romans were expelled in 1630. 

With this slight sketch of the country to help us we can 
follow Bruce in his travels through Abyssinia. He found it 
in a state of civil war, and narrowly escaped being murdered 
at the port of Massowah in September 1769. 

But the story of the salute given him at Jidda, and the 
news that he was a great prince, saved his life. He presented 
his letters to the man in authority. " Do you think I shall 
read all these letters ? Why, it would take me a month." 
"Just as you please," replied Bruce, reclining easily in a 
large elbow chair. A day or two after, the Nagbe asked 
for 300 ounces of gold. 

" I am not a trader," said Bruce ; " I have no gold for 
you." 

" Then I will confine you in a dungeon till your bones 
come through your skin." 

" Since you have broken your faith with the Govern- 
ment of Cairo, you may expect to see the Lion, an English 
man-of-war, some morning soon," said Bruce firmly. 

" Ha ! ha ! I should like to see the man that would 
carry as much writing from you to Jidda as would lie 
upon my thumb-nail ! I would strip off his skin and hang 
him before your door, Englishman ! " 

" My wisdom has already taught me to prevent this," 
replied Bruce ; " my letter has already gone to Jidda. So 
I advise you to let me continue my journey." 

The Nagbe swore under his breath : " Go, then, and 
think of the ill that is before you." 

On the 15th of November Bruce got away and faced 

28 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

the three ridges of mountains, crossing lovely water-courses 
in which he bathed, finding that the skylark sang the same 
notes as in England, having battles with herds of hyenas. 
One day he bought an Arab horse and groom, Arab stirrups, 
saddle, and bridle ; the horse he called Mirza, a name of 
good fortune to him hereafter. 

When at length he reached Adowa, the capital of Tigre, 
the chief officer of Customs was so shocked at Brace's torn 
and bleeding feet that he burst into tears and cursed the 
Nagbe of Massowah. The Governor of the city received 
Bruce cordially, and feasted him and his company. 

On their way to Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, they 
came upon the ruins of Axum, in which were forty obelisks, 
each being made of one piece of granite. Soon after they 
witnessed an episode, the narration of which on his return 
to London served to make many stay-at-homes sceptical 
of Brace's veracity. For he says, " We overtook three 
travellers driving a cow before them ; as we drew near a 
river the drivers suddenly tripped up the cow ; then one of 
them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the 
horns, another twisted a halter round her fore feet, while 
the third cut out of her buttocks two good-sized beefsteaks. 
Then they clapped down the skin, made a plaster of clay, 
forced the animal to rise, and drove it on before them." 
Even Dr. Johnson, who had travelled as far as Scotland, 
found this story too difficult for his digestion ; though he 
may have often enjoyed a supper of live oysters, and heard 
of English sailors eating the tail of a live shark. However, 
later travellers have confessed that they had often seen 
the very disgusting act which Bruce was found guilty of 
imagining. 

Ninety-five days after leaving Massowah, Bruce saw before 
him Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia. The city is situated 
on the flat summit of a hill, half-circled by the river Angrat ; 

29 



JAMES BRUCE 

on the west side stands the king's palace, flanked by towers 
and surrounded by a stone wall 30 feet high. On the other 
side of the river was a large town of Mahometans, and on 
the north of Gondar was Koscam, the palace of the queen- 
mother. 

It soon became known that Bruce was a Hakim, or 
Physician, and as the smallpox was raging in the city, Ayto 
Aylo, the queen's chamberlain, called upon him by the 
queen-mother's orders. 

But a saint of the country having just administered to a 
sick young prince some sacred letters written in ink on 
a tin plate and washed off into a cup, Bruce had to bide till 
the morrow. As, after the infusion of sacred letters, the 
patient had been crammed with raw beef, the poor boy died 
in the night. His mother, Ozoro Esther, the beautiful 
wife of Ras Michael, sent for Bruce again and promised to 
obey all his orders. 

Her faith in the local saint was gone ; her little daughter 
was now ill, and she was inconsolable. 

Bruce obtained new and clean clothes, for he had been 
near infection ; he had his hair cut, curled, and perfumed in 
the fashion, and set to work in the palace : he opened all 
the windows and doors, washed them with warm water and 
vinegar, and utterly upset all local customs. 

After a few weeks most of his patients recovered. Bruce 
received as a reward a house for himself near the palace. 

When the king returned and heard about Brace's skill 
and attention he appointed the Englishman " master of the 
king's horse," an office of great rank and revenue. 

But Bruce declined the honour : he had no wish to live 
and die in Gondar, but desired to explore the country and 
find the Nile source. 

One day Bruce had put down a boaster in the king's 
presence by saying he could do as much with a tallow candle 

30 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

as the boaster could with his gun. The king turned and 
asked him to make his words good. 

Three shields were brought, and Bruce loaded his gun 
before a courtyard full of gaping savages, slid down the 
barrel half a farthing candle, and fired ! The candle went 
through the three shields and dashed itself to pieces against 
a stone wall behind them. 

The effect on the king's mind was immense, but some of 
the priests muttered " Magic ! " 

Bruce was now appointed governor of a province on the 
west, near the frontiers of Sennaar, and was happy in his 
freedom. 

He marched with the king's army, often ill with ague, 
often at the brink of destruction. One day he asked a boon 
of the king — " You shall give me, sire, the village Geesh, 
where the Nile rises."" 

The king laughed, and said, " It is done, Yagoube ; I 
feared you might ask leave to go home,"" and he swore to 
give Bruce and his heirs those springs for ever. 

But Bruce was not to find the source of the Blue Nile so 
easily. For, when he travelled to visit Fasil, the king's 
chief near Geesh, and explained his object, that worthy 
exclaimed, " The source of the Nile ! Do you know what 
you are saying ? Why, it is God knows where, in the 
country of the Galla, wild, terrible people. Are you to get 
there in a year ? " 

After some talk Bruce found that the chief priest, Abba 
Salama, had ordered Fasil not to permit a Frank, like him, 
to pass thither. 

Bruce thereupon lost his temper and answered rudely ; a 
violent bleeding at the nose came on, and he had to seek 
his tent and think quietly over his folly. 

The next day Fasil put Bruce on a wild horse, hoping 
he would be killed or kicked to death ; but Bruce let the 

31 



JAMES BRUCE 

brute gallop and buck till he was tired, then gave the reins 
to a groom, saying — 

" Take the horse back to your master ; he may venture 
to ride him now, which is more than either he or you dared 
to have done in the morning." 

Fasil, on Brace's return, was ashamed of what he had 
tried to do, and said, " The groom deserves to die ; take 
him, Yagoube, and cut him in a thousand pieces, if you 
please, and give his body to the kites." 

" No," said Bruce, " I am a Christian ; the way my 
religion teaches me to punish my enemies is by doing good 
for evil." 

Fasil, in a low voice, said to his officers, " A man that 
behaves as he does may go through any country " ; and he 
put on him a white muslin robe, saying, " Bear witness all ! 
I give to you, Yagoube, the village Geesh as fully and freely 
as the king hath given it to me." 

Fasil then turned to seven chiefs of the Galla, who 
swore to protect this stranger. On the 2nd of November 
he had ridden to the Nile, near the mountain of Geesh ; 
here he told the natives he should collect no more taxes, 
and they wondered what worse infliction their new lord 
would put upon them. He found the Nile here only twenty 
feet broad and a foot deep, and stopped to meditate. 
" I could not satiate my eyes with the sight, revolving 
in my mind all those classical prophecies that had given the 
Nile up to perpetual obscurity and concealment." 

To appease the natives, who looked on the Nile as 
sacred, Bruce threw off his shoes and ran down to a little 
island in which were two fountains. Long he stood there 
before an altar of green turf, thanking God that he had 
won through so many dangers to arrive at the sources of 
the Nile ; but soon a strange despondency fell upon him, he 
knew not why. As Byron sings — 

32 




Bruce and the Wild Horse 



Bruce when seeking the source of the Blue Nile was prevented by Fasil the King's 
chief near Geash, who, hoping that he would be killed, mounted him on a wild horse 
But Bruce let it gallop and buck till it was tired, then handed it ovei to a groom. 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

" The lovely toy, so keenly sought, 
Has lost its charms by being caught." 

Bruce would have felt more despondent still if he could 
have been told that his Nile was only the smaller river, not 
the main stream. Naturally the Abyssinians believed that 
their river was the real Nile, and many European savants 
also at that time believed the same. We must not forget, 
too, that the learned Jesuit, Peter Paez, had visited these 
fountains one hundred and fifty years before Bruce, but his 
journal had never reached the public eye. 

On returning to the village, Bruce was welcomed by the 
Shum, or Priest of the river, and they passed a very merry 
evening, for the good news of Brace's generosity was at last 
being assimilated by their suspicious minds. Bruce then 
returned to Gondar, took part in a campaign, saw his 
enemy, Abba Salama, hanged for treason, and witnessed the 
terrible cruelty that followed upon victory — hundreds being 
blinded and turned off to the hyenas. 

Bruce made a vain protest to the king, who only laughed 
and said, " They were rebels ; fear not, Yagoube : all dead 
bodies shall be removed from the streets before the Epi- 
phany. 1 '' 

" So this is Christianity in Abyssinia ! " thought Bruce, 
and a great longing to go back to Scotland seized upon him. 

He asked the king's permission to depart, and it was 
reluctantly given. On the 26th of December 1771 he left 
Gondar after a residence of two years and a quarter. After 
five days 1 journey through wooded hills he came to Tcherkin, 
and here a man came to his tent to conduct him to a friend. 
Bruce went to a pretty house overlooking the river, and to 
his great surprise found the lovely Ozoro Esther sitting on 
an ottoman with her maid. 

" You need not be surprised, Yagoube, to see me here ; 

33 ' c 



JAMES BRUCE 

my husband is dead, and I am resolved to go to Jerusalem, 
that I may be buried in the Holy Sepulchre." 

Ozoro's son, Confu, having come to hunt big game, 
Bruce was easily persuaded to be their guest ; but on the 
15th January he tore himself away, feeling that his love 
was due to a Scots lassie whom he hoped one day to 
marry. 

When he reached the capital of Atbara, the Sheikh 
demanded from Bruce two thousand piastres in gold, and 
detained him by many excuses. 

" I have no gold for you," said Bruce ; " I advise you to 
drink a little warm water to clear your stomach and cool 
your head. v> 

Bruce was leaving the chamber, when the Sheikh 
exclaimed in fury, " Hakim, infidel, or devil, hearken to 
what I say : either give me those piastres, or you shall 
die — aye, by mine own hand," 

Upon this, says Bruce, he took up his sword, and draw- 
ing it with bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of 
the room ; then, tucking up the sleeve of his shirt above his 
elbow, like a butcher, he said, " I wait your answer." Bruce, 
stepping one pace backwards, dropped the burnoose behind 
him and closed the joint in the stock of the small blunder- 
buss which he concealed under his flowing robe : at the same 
time he replied in a firm tone — 

" This is my answer : I am not a man to die like a beast 
by the hand of a drunkard ; on your life, I charge you, stir 
not from your sofa." 

Bruce had no need to give this order, for the Sheikh, on 
hearing the click, thought the blunderbuss had been cocked, 
and was about to be fired. 

He let his sword drop, threw himself on his back on the 
sofa and cried, " For God's sake, Hakim, take care ! I was 
but jesting." 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

" I thought so," said Bruce in cutting tones, " therefore 
I wish you good night. " 

He left the bully cowed for the moment ; and fortunately 
letters came from the Sheikh's superior demanding Brace's 
immediate release. 

Bruce quitted Sennaar and crossed the great desert of 
Nubia, meeting sandstorms and whirlwinds, losing camels 
and being robbed by Arabs ; more than one of his party 
went mad, water failed them, the simoon exhausted them, 
and Bruce had to walk long distances with bleeding feet. 

One day they found a widgeon in a small pool of water. 

" Don't shoot it," said Bruce to Ishmael, his attendant ; 
" let us see in which direction it will fly — there will be the 
Nile." 

The bird rose high — for a long flight — and flew to the 
west. 

At last the remaining camels were too weak to stand, 
so they killed two, and the Bishareen Arabs extracted from 
their stomachs about four gallons of water — pure, untainted, 
and very wholesome ! 

A few days later, with death before their eyes, they had 
to leave all heavy objects behind : Bruce buried in the sand 
his drawings and journals, his quadrant, telescope, and time- 
keeper, and sat down in great dejection on the top of a 
rocky hill. Surely God had forgotten to be gracious, and 
all his pains and trouble and daring and suffering were to 
be thrown away ! 

He covered his face with his hands, lest the others 
should see his tears. The evening was still — very still — and 
Bruce thought he heard a strange noise far, far away. Was 
it delirium coming over him, or did he really hear the sound 
of many waters ? " Listen, Ishmael ! do you hear anything ? " 

" God is merciful ! " cried the other, starting to his feet, 
" it is the cataract ! " 

35 



JAMES BRUCE 

The news flew from one to another in the little camp : 
Christians, Moors, and Turks all burst into tears, kissed 
and embraced one another, and held up hands to thank 
God for His infinite mercy and kindness. 

Next morning at nine o'clock they saw before them the 
palm trees of Assouan, and their weary march of twelve 
weeks from Sennaar was at last completed. Painfully they 
ran to the Nile to drink : Bruce flung himself down beneath 
some palm trees and fell into a deep sleep. 

Ishmael, in his green turban and ragged robes, walked 
into the town in search of food. He was questioned — 
" What ! travelled all that way ! you must come to the 
Aga. What ! you have an English master ! Where 
is he?" 

" Go," said Ishmael, " to yon palm trees, and when you 
find the tallest man you ever saw in your life, more ragged 
and dirty than I am, call him Yagoube, and desire him to 
come along with you to the Aga." 

" I do not know if I can walk," stammered Bruce, when 
the janissary called him to awake and come with him to the 
castle. 

However, he managed to get as far as the castle, where 
the Aga received him hospitably. " My firman, sir, and 
papers — all buried in the desert ; but give me freslj camels 
and I will fetch them — I would rather risk my life twenty 
times than lose those papers." 

" God forbid I should suffer you to do so mad an action : 
we will take it for granted what those papers contain — go in 
peace : eat and sleep." 

The Aga sent fifty loaves of fine, white bread, and some 
dishes of meat, but when the smell of these reached Bruce, 
he fell down in a faint. 

For some days he could take nothing but toasted bread 
and coffee ; but on the sixth day he obtained dromedaries, 

36 



EXPLORER OF ABYSSINIA 

rode back forty miles in the desert, found his baggage and 
papers, and returned a happier man. 

On the 11th December he went on board a canja at 
Syene, and floated down the Nile to Cairo, feeling all the 
worse from the change to absolute idleness. 

Mahomet Bey, at Cairo, was all kindness. Bruce soon set 
sail for Marseilles. Paris treated him with every attention, 
Italy with honour, but London with incredulity and neglect ; 
this stung his Scotch pride to the quick, so he hurried back 
to his home in Scotland, and busied himself with his private 
affairs. In March 1776 he married Mary Dundas, a lady 
much younger than himself, for he was now forty-six. 

His Abyssinian dress and astronomical studies scared the 
people of the glen, and " Eh ! the laird's gaen daft ! " was 
the prevailing opinion. 

His wife died in 1785, leaving a son and a daughter. 
Then, in his solitude, he completed the history of his work 
and travels in the year 1790, just seventeen years after his 
return to Europe. It consisted of five large quarto volumes, 
and was addressed to the king. 

It is full of interesting matter and of exciting stories, 
and we, who can lazily glide down to Khartoum in a first- 
class carriage, must feel that the pioneer of such dangerous 
travel as Bruce experienced is worthy of all honour. The 
hero who survived so many perils was destined to meet his 
death by doing an act of politeness. He was saying good 
night to a party of friends at Kinnaird, when, seeing an old 
lady was going downstairs alone, he hurried to help her, 
missed his footing, and pitched on his head. 

So died James Bruce in his own quiet home in the 
sixty-fourth year of his age. His descendants have not 
yet claimed their heritage in the fountains of the Blue Nile 
at Geesh, left to them for ever by the King of Abyssinia. 

37 



CHAPTER II 

SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

SAMUEL WHITE BAKER was born in 1821, of a 
family of Bristol merchants, some of whom possessed 
large estates in Dorset and Kent. Many of his 
ancestors were shipowners and sea-rovers of the Elizabethan 
type, and Samuel inherited the family love of adventure and 
travel. In his boyhood he lived at Enfield : he was fair of 
skin, and had blue eyes and a stout frame, and was full 
of mischief and activity. 

When he was twelve years old his parents removed to 
Highnam Court, near Gloucester, where there was very 
good shooting ; at an early age Samuel learnt to use a gun, 
and grew up manly and healthy. 

He was sent to school at the Gloucester College, near 
the Cathedral ; three years later he was removed to a tutor 
at Tottenham, where he was allowed to browse in the 
library at will, and drank in much that influenced his after 
life from the study of Belzoni's Travels hi Egypt mid Nubia. 

Next he was sent to attend lectures at Frankfort-on- 
Main, and on his return found that his father's new home, 
Lypiatt Park, was the paradise of sportsmen ; here he even 
wrote poetry and dreamed of making discoveries. 

In 1843 Samuel and his brother were both married on 
the same day, two brothers to two sisters, daughters of 
Charles Martin, rector of Maisemore. Samuel and John, 
with their young wives, went soon after this to the Mauritius 
to help in managing their father's estate. 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

In 1846 Samuel took his young family to Ceylon, which 
at that time was in a poor state, owing to the failure of the 
coffee crop. 

His brother John joined him in buying a thousand acres 
at Newera Eliya, 6000 feet above the sea, where they 
imported a colony, men, women, children, horses, and 
hounds, and cattle. In that mountain plain, so lately the 
home of the elk, the elephant, and the wild boar, they built 
an English village and made the wilderness and jungle rich 
with roses and the flowers of the tea plant. 

In 1855 the two brothers returned to England with 
their families, leaving their Ceylon settlement in the hands 
of their bailiff. 

Samuel, having seen his book, Eight Years' Wanderings 
in Ceylon, through the press, took his wife to the Pyrenees, 
but in December the lady died of typhus fever ; and as his 
two brothers, Valentine and James, were then serving in the 
Crimean War, Samuel resolved to travel to Constantinople. 
Peace, however, was soon proclaimed, and Samuel returned 
to England, feeling already that a life spent in shooting big 
game was hardly worth living. 

In 1859 we find him superintending the construction of 
a railway from the Danube to the Black Sea ; and it was 
about this time that he met the daughter of Herr Finian 
von Sass, whom he afterwards married. 

In 1860 he had determined to go to Khartoum, and 
perhaps try to help Speke in finding the sources of the 
Nile. " You know," he wrote to a friend, " that Africa has 
always been in my head " ; and again, he wrote to his sister, 
" A wandering spirit is in my marrow, which forbids rest." 

It was, of course, the White Nile which he wished to 
explore, for the Abyssinian highlands had been visited by 
several British parties from the time that Bruce left the 
country. 

39 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

As to the White Nile, M. de Bellefonds, an agent of 
the African Association in London, had reached 13° 6' N. 
latitude, and had found from the quality of the water that 
it probably issued from a lake : this lake had been heard 
of by missionaries in East Africa, and in 1858 Burton and 
Speke were sent to discover it by the Royal Geographical 
Society. They reached Lake Tanganyika together, and 
Speke went on and found the Victoria Nyanza ; in 1860 
Speke had gone out again with Grant, and it was these 
now whom Baker wished to assist. So he started from 
Cairo in April 1861, and went by boat to Korosko, where 
he obtained camels and entered the Nubian Desert. 

The pace they went in a very hot season made Mrs. 
Baker ill, but they pressed on to Berber and examined 
the river Atbara with interest, as being the chief bearer 
of the alluvial soil which yearly enriches the Delta of 
Egypt. Baker, with a few Arabs, ascended the dry bed 
of the Atbara, and in The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia 
he tells us what he experienced : — 

" At about half-past eight I was lying half-asleep upon 
my bed by the margin of the river when I fancied that 
I heard a rumbling like distant thunder — then a confusion 
of voices arose from the Arabs'* camp, with the sound of 
many feet ; in a few minutes they rushed into my camp, 
shouting to my men in the darkness, 6 El bahr ! el 
bahr ! ' (the river ! the river !) 

" We were up in an instant . . . many of the people 
were asleep on the clean sand on the river's bed ; these were 
quickly awakened by the Arabs, but the sound of the 
waters in the darkness beneath told us that the river had 
arrived ; and the men, dripping with wet, had just sufficient 
time to drag their heavy burdens up the bank. All was 
darkness and confusion : the river had arrived like 6 a thief 
in the night.' " 

40 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

Next morning they looked down upon a noble river 
flowing deep, muddy, and boisterous through the thirsty 
desert. 

For a few days longer they marched up the river's 
banks, sometimes crossing deep glens rich with long grass 
and alive with big game and herds of antelopes. 

At the village of Sofi, Baker kept a permanent camp 
for five months. He bought a neat dwelling in the village ; 
but, as it was near insanitary and odorous surroundings, 
he had the roof carried on the shoulders of thirty men, 
and the sticks that formed the walls borne by a motley 
crowd of helpers, to a more eligible spot upon a little 
hill in the park-like grounds, commanding an extensive 
view over the well-wooded valley of the Atbara — no taxes, 
as he says, no tithes ! — not more than 2000 miles from 
a church, and with a post-town at the easy distance of 
70 leagues ; the manor being plentifully stocked with 
elephants, lions, giraffes, &c., while the rivers swarmed 
with fish of all sizes, and also with turtles and crocodiles. 

His house comprised dining-room, drawing-room, lady's 
boudoir, library, bedroom, &c. — with this great advantage, 
that all were combined in one circular chamber, fourteen 
feet in diameter ! 

How pleasantly Mr. and Mrs. Baker passed their time 
in Abyssinia compared with the long-drawn sufferings of 
James Bruce ! 

Until now Baker had made sport the chief interest in his 
life : science and philanthropy had taken a second place. 

Even now he was fraternising with the Hamran Arabs, 
who hunted the lion and elephant with only a horse and 
a sword ; but he began to draw careful maps of the river 
system during his fourteen months' stay in Abyssinia. Sir 
Roderick Murchison, after examining his papers, recorded 
that Baker "had placed in a clear light the relations of 

41 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

the Atbara and Blue Nile to the main stream of the Nile, and 
had shown by actual observation that it was to these affluents 
the great river owed the rich sediment which, deposited by 
inundations, was the source of the fertility of Egypt." 

The Abyssinian rivers, rushing down with furious speed 
from the highlands, carried the soil with them ; while the 
White Nile, lazily passing through flat plains and encum- 
bered with thick weeds, left its deposits behind. 

In June 1862, Baker went back to the Nile at Khartoum, 
where he waited six months for the rains to cease. 

Khartoum was at that period the resort of slave-dealers 
and scoundrels, and Musa Pasha, the Governor-General, 
looking upon Baker as an English spy upon their profitable 
trade, did what he could to prevent his going up the White 
Nile. During this time Baker heard of his father's death, 
and wrote to his sister, " It breaks my heart to think that I 
was his only child absent — God rest his soul ! . . . Nothing 
but death shall prevent me from discovering the sources of 
the Nile . . . under God's guidance I shall succeed . . . 
I do not believe in what are called difficulties : they dissolve 
like spectres when faced. If you read Bruce's travels in 
these parts, you will shudder at the mere idea of living in 
such a country. I did so myself when I read his narrative ; 
but although his descriptions are wonderfully accurate, I 
found no difficulties worth mentioning. " 

The Government of the Khedive refused Baker an escort 
of soldiers, and he had to be content with " the cut-throats 
of Khartoum." 

He bought twenty-nine transport animals, camels, horses, 
and donkeys, and started with three vessels, forty-five armed 
men, forty men to manage the boats and supplies, and 
servants : making ninety-six in all. 

Writing from Khartoum Baker says, " This country is 
no paradise : both morally and in its natural features it is 

42 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

hell itself, in plain English. But as I approach the Equator 
I hope to find an improvement, certainly in the natives, as 
they will be simple savages ; whereas here they are savages 
cursed with every European vice, and with not one virtue of 
their race. 11 

On the 18th December 1862, Baker left Khartoum with 
his Bedlam crew of rascals on two nuggars, or sailing barges, 
and one dahabia, which had been fitted with decent cabins 
for himself and Mrs. Baker. 

In ten days they reached the land of the Dinka negroes, 
who kept in hiding, fearing to be taken as slaves. On the 
last day of the year Johann Schmidt, the German hunter and 
expert carpenter, died in spite of being nursed carefully by 
Mrs. Baker. His loss was keenly felt. 

After a dreary and slow passage through marshlands, 
on the 2nd of February they drew near Gondokoro, formerly 
a mission station of the Austrians, but now the depot of the 
ivory traders and slave hunters : these people looked on 
Baker as a spy, and tried to induce his men to desert by telling 
tales of the great dangers and pains to which they would be 
exposed further on. 

Baker made a great store of corn, &c, in case Speke and 
Grant should come in and be short of supplies ; but his men, 
being refused permission to loot the neighbours, broke out 
into open rebellion against him. 

Baker seized the ringleader and thrashed him, but the 
others came howling round to attack him. At this moment 
Mrs. Baker, though suffering from fever, rushed out of her 
tent and cried to some of the men who knew her to come to 
her rescue. Then the others wavered, and Baker seized the 
moment to give a sharp order to " fall in " : the sense of 
discipline prevailed, and they fell into line : the lady begged 
her husband to forgive them, and Baker accepted an apology 
from the ringleader. 

43 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

Certainly his life was saved by the pluck and good sense 
of his wife. 

News began to come in that a caravan was approaching. 
On the 15th of February they heard the noise of guns from 
the south, and saw men running madly along the bank of 
the river ; presently some of Baker's men rushed up to his 
boat, which was moored to the shore, and they breathlessly 
shouted, " The caravan ! and two white men from the sea ! " 

There was such a din of muskets fired for salutes, and of 
shouts of negroes, that Baker did not realise at first that 
one of his donkeys had been shot by some enthusiastic negro, 
or Arab. For the salutes were fired with ball cartridges, and 
no particular aim was thought incumbent on them just then. 

Baker set off to meet the strangers. He says in The 
Albert Nyanza, " At a distance of about a hundred yards I 
recognised my old friend Speke, and with a heart beating 
with joy I took off my cap and gave a welcome ' Hurrah ! ' as 
I ran towards him. For the moment he did not recognise 
me : ten years 1 growth of beard and moustache had worked 
a change ; and as I was totally unexpected, my sudden 
appearance in the centre of Africa seemed incredible . . . 
We were shortly seated on deck under the awning ; and such 
rough fare as could be hastily prepared was set before these 
two ragged, careworn specimens of African travel." 

Speke and Grant, "with characteristic candour and 
generosity," showed Baker the map of their route ; they in- 
formed him how they had traced the Nile from the Victoria 
Nyanza Lake, but had been obliged to omit a long portion 
of the river when it turned west after the Karuma Falls ; 
this they urged Baker to explore, as they had heard of a 
second lake. 

Baker thanked the explorers heartily, and at once began 
to organise his party ; he lent his boats and men to Speke 
and Grant, and on the 26th of February 1863 they started 

44 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

for Khartoum. " They have won their victory," said Baker to 
his noble wife, as the boats vanished in the distance ; " my 
work lies before me." Mohammed, the slave-trader who had 
escorted Speke to Gondokoro, agreed that his porters should 
carry Baker's baggage to Faloro, but from the first this man 
and his followers plotted to thwart Baker and prevent him 
from penetrating into the south country. They even tam- 
pered with Baker's own men ; and, had not a small boy 
of twelve overhead the scheme of robbery and murder which 
was proposed, and revealed it to Mrs. Baker, all might have 
been ruined. 

As it was Baker was forewarned, and disarmed fifteen of 
the mutineers ; then, as Mohammed had gone forward, 
leaving a message to Baker that if he followed him there 
would be bloodshed, Baker had to join himself to another 
party of slave-traders. These were no more friendly to 
Baker, until Mrs. Baker called on their leader, Ibrahim, to 
be friends, and offered presents. At Latome they fell in 
again with Mohammed, and Baker's men mutinied once more. 

" Not a man shall go with you ! " shouted the ringleader 
insolently. 

" Lay down your gun," ordered Baker. 

" I will not ! " 

Baker with one stout blow struck the Arab to the 
ground, and at once began dragging his men to their camels. 

All but five sullenly followed him, and Baker said of 
these five, in the hearing of his men, " Never mind ! the 
vultures shall pick their bones." 

In a few days the news was brought that Mohammed's 
men had been exterminated by a tribe of the Latuka ; and 
the mutineers remembered the prophecy which the English- 
man had uttered, and there was no more trouble. 

Forty miles to the south-west lay Obbo, and its chief had 
sent Baker presents, on hearing that a white man was coming 

45 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

who wanted neither ivory nor slaves. Such a man seemed to 
the native mind a being higher than human. So Baker 
went to Obbo, a tableland nearly four thousand feet high. 
The chief received him well, and took care of Mrs. Baker, 
while he himself pushed down to the south. 

After leaving Obbo, sickness broke out and Baker lost 
all his transport animals : so he trained three oxen for 
riding. Then all his porters deserted, and he had to depend 
on the good offices of the chiefs, who demanded endless gifts, 
even the muslin cap which Mrs. Baker was wearing. At last 
Kamrasi, the King of Unyoro, proposed to Baker that they 
should exchange wives ; this was a little too much for Samuel 
Baker. " Drawing my revolver quietly," he says, " I held it 
within two feet of his chest ; and looking at him with un- 
disguised contempt, I told him that if I touched the trigger 
not all his men could save him ; and that if he dared to 
repeat the insult I would shoot him on the spot. I explained 
to him that I looked upon him as an ignorant ox who knew 
no better, and that this excuse alone could save him." Mrs. 
Baker also had risen from her seat, and with angry brow 
dealt him some severe taunts in Arabic. 

Kamrasi, with an air of indignant surprise, exclaimed, 
" Be not angry ! I had no intention to offend by asking for 
your wife ; I will give you a wife if you want one ; it is 
my custom to give my visitors pretty wives, and I thought 
you might exchange. Don't make a fuss, I pray you ; if you 
don't like it, I will never mention it again." 

Baker received Kamrasi's apology sternly, and insisted 
on going away. Kamrasi provided porters to carry Baker's 
baggage to the lake, Muta Nzige ; there canoes were to be 
ready to convey him to Magungo, at which place he would 
see the Nile issue from the lake. Baker hoped that, after 
making observations on this source of the Nile, he would be 
able to get back to Gondokoro in time for the last boat to 

46 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

Khartoum ; for he had used all his quinine. As he says, 
" It was a race against time : all was untrodden ground 
before us, and the distance quite uncertain. I trembled 
for my wife, and weighed the risk of another year in this 
horrible country should we lose the boats. With the self- 
sacrificing devotion that she had shown in every trial, she 
implored me not to think of any risks on her account, but 
to push forward and discover the lake.'" 

They started with a fine escort of 300 men, who wore 
horns on their heads, and rifled every village they passed 
near ; so Baker thought it wiser to dispense with further 
protection from such black ruffians. 

Thus, with only thirteen men left, they waded through 
wet marshes until they had to cross the river Kafu ; but in 
doing this Mrs. Baker was exposed to the sun, and received 
a sunstroke. They made a litter and carried her on half- 
dead and unconscious, till brain fever came on. " For seven 
nights," Baker says, " I had not slept ; and although as 
weak as a reed, I had marched by the side of her litter. 
Nature could resist no longer. We reached a village one 
evening ; she had been in violent convulsions : it was all but 
over. I laid her down on her litter within her hut, covered 
her with a Scotch plaid, and fell upon my mat insensible, 
worn out with sorrow and fatigue. My men put a new 
handle to the pick-axe that evening, and sought for a dry 
spot to dig her grave." 

But the brave lady struggled against death, and to 
Baker's intense relief she spoke to him calmly in the dead 
of night. " A day or two of rest, dear, and I shall be 
ready to go on," she said. 

So they started on again, and on the 14th of March 
1864, about noon, they came upon a sight that made their 
hearts leap with joy. Though Baker was ill and weak, he 
seemed to grow strong as he sat upon the cliff and looked 

47 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

down 1500 feet below at the silver sea surrounded by 
glorious mountains, the highest of which were hid from 
his gaze, being shrouded in almost perpetual cloud. 
Taking a long stick, Baker tottered down the step -like 
path till he gained the beach. The oxen could with 
difficulty follow, even without baggage. At the base of 
the cliff was a wide strip of sandy land, interspersed with 
bush and grass ; but Baker hurried to the water's edge, 
bathed face and shoulders, took a long drink of pure 
water. Such a treat after the water of the wells, pol- 
luted by toads and lizards and dead creatures ! Then on 
his knees he thanked God for having guided him, when all 
hope of success was lost, to this successful end of his journey. 
He named the Muta Nzige the Albert Nyanza, and rejoiced 
with his wife to think that they had found the second source 
of the Nile ! 

Yet they did not stay here long to rest, but coasted 
along the eastern shore of the lake till, after thirteen days, 
they came upon the spot where the Somerset Nile runs into 
the lake, near the north end, and almost immediately flows 
out again on its northward way to Egypt. 

After exploring the river as far as the Karuma Falls, and 
discovering on his way the Murchison Falls, he was detained 
by King Kamrasi at Kisuna and dunned for presents again 
and again. They could not get away until November, and 
had to join the slave-trader Ibrahim, who had a caravan of 
nearly a thousand men ; most of these were carrying the 
ivory which he had bought, begged, or stolen from the poor 
villagers. What a meagre world our grandsons will live in ! 
for far away to the North greedy hunters are clubbing the 
unresisting seal, while the most intelligent of all animals 
is being quickly stamped out of existence for the sake of 
its valuable tusks. 

The seal and the elephant seem destined to the same 

48 




The King of the Desert 

The African lion is an ugly customer, and only a sure eye and a steady hand 
have saved the life of many a traveller. 



SPORTSMAN AND TRAVELLER 

doom which has befallen the buffalo and many other noble 
animals. 

When, in March 1865, Baker and his wife reached 
Gondokoro, they found no boats, letters, or supplies ; for 
they had been reported dead. But at length they secured 
a dahabia and sailed down-stream ; but the vessel was 
infected by typhus, and the faithful black boy Saat, who 
had once saved their lives, fell a victim to this disease. 

On the 3rd of May they landed at Khartoum, after an 
absence of two years and a half, and were welcomed with 
delight. 

Perhaps the most worthy thing in Baker's arduous 
explorations is the tactful and patient way he had in 
dealing with the natives. 

Some travellers have gone across Africa with a revolver 
ever ready, and their path has been marked by recurring blood- 
shed. But Baker treated the chiefs as gentlemen, and the 
poorest negro as a fellow human being. In a letter to a 
friend he wrote : " The natives are throughout very 
annoying people, throwing every obstacle in your way and 
asking for everything you possess . . . but thankful I am 
to say that never at any negro have I pulled trigger. . . . 
I would not condescend to fire at a poor devil of a savage, 
except in extremity. Any good shot with a few spare rifles 
could beat five hundred of them." 

So, though the slave-traders had combined against him, 
and all his transport animals had died, Baker and his wife 
won through to their goal, living on wild vegetables, mouldy 
flour, and any game they could pick up. He had discovered 
one of the sources of the Nile, and he had done it at his own 
charges and cost. 

While England has such men amongst her landowners, 
we may think twice before we denounce the inequality of 
wealth. 

49 d 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

We cannot find space to follow this traveller further 
through his manifold wanderings about the world. 

The Royal Geographical Society awarded him their gold 
medal, and Queen Victoria conferred on him the honour of 
knighthood. 

In 1869 he accepted the position of Major-General in 
the Turkish Army, and was sent by Ismael Pasha to put 
down the slave-trade. 

This was a task beyond his powers, for his subordin- 
ates had too many interests in the slave-trade to wish it 
destroyed. 

His last years were spent in his Devonshire home at 
Sandford Orleigh, where he was frequently consulted by 
eminent statesmen on questions relating to Egypt and 
Africa. 

Stanley has said of him : " He was a glorious English- 
man : typically manly and straightforward. ... In olden 
times he would have been deified for his vigour, indomitable 
bearing, physical strength, and exploits." 

Sir Samuel Baker died of angina pectoris in December 
1893, in the presence of the heroic wife who had accom- 
panied him to the source of the Nile. 

Only a few weeks before his death he had written to a 
friend : " It is quite possible I may be off next year — 
perhaps to shoot lions in Somaliland, or on some such 
errand." 

Sir Samuel wrote many books on travel and sport ; a 
few quotations have been made in this chapter from letters 
contained in a memoir of Sir Samuel, published by Messrs. 
Macmillan. 



50 



CHAPTER III 

SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON, traveller, soldier, 
linguist, was born in 1821 near Elstree in Hert- 
fordshire. His father's family came from West- 
moreland, one ancestor having been made a Knight 
Banneret by Edward IV. after the second battle of 
St. Albans. 

His grandfather was rector of Twam in Ireland ; his 
father was an officer in the 36th Regiment, and his mother, a 
Miss Baker, was descended from the Macgregors and Macleans. 
Bronchial asthma prevented Colonel Burton from continuing 
in the army, and also gave a pretext for his taking his wife 
and three children to many spots in the south — Blois, Pisa, 
Rome, Naples, and Pau in the Pyrenees. Consequently his 
eldest son, Richard, grew up with a taste for roaming and 
an aptitude for picking up foreign languages. 

When, at the age of nineteen, Richard Burton was sent 
to Trinity College, Oxford, he felt like a fish out of water. 
He looked and talked like a foreigner, and preferred the 
study of Arabic to that of Greek. Also he had been 
accustomed to greater freedom than the college authorities 
allowed : wherefore he soon got into hot water for cutting 
lectures and riding to steeplechases ; but when summoned 
to the senior common room, Burton had the impudence 
to defend his conduct on high ethical grounds. 

The President recommended him to quit Oxford, which 
he did in a tandem, driving over the pretty flower-beds of 

51 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

the college. This was a fair example of Burton's high- 
handed exploits all through his life, doings which gained 
him a few stalwart friends, but many bitter enemies. 

His father, who desired him to prepare himself to take 
a family living, was shocked by the seeming disgrace. But 
all was for the best, since Richard was not cut out for a 
sober preacher ; and Lord Fitzroy Somerset, afterwards Lord 
Raglan, obtained for the scapegrace a commission in the 
37th Regiment. 

On the 18th of June 1842, Richard embarked for India 
by the Cape. The Afghan disaster, when out of 16,000 
men only Dr. Brydone escaped, had only recently occurred, 
and the officers going out were hoping for a chance of glory 
and promotion ; but by the time they arrived at Bombay 
the war of revenge was over. 

Burton loved sport, but he did not sacrifice duty to 
that amusement : he at once engaged a Parsee and studied 
native languages. He had to travel to Baroda to join the 
18th Bombay Native Infantry. Baroda, now a thriving city 
of Gujarat, was then a jumble of huts and bungalows. Here 
Burton worked at Arabic and Hindustani while the other 
officers played billiards or rode off pig-sticking. 

Now and then he took a day off for tigers and antelopes ; 
but monkeys he refused to shoot, because, he said, their 
manner of dying was too human. 

As Burton had learnt fencing in his youth, he took 
great pains to instruct his Sepoy company in that art. 
Sometimes he would disguise himself as a native pedlar 
and roam about amongst the bazaars. In one of these 
rambles he got to know a beautiful Persian girl of good 
family, whom he loved passionately ; but she fell ill and 
died, leaving the young officer subject to fits of melancholy. 
We cannot follow him through his travels to Scinde and Goa 
and Calicut, or even stay to recount how Burton tried to 

52 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

rescue a discontented nun from her convent at Panjim, but 
unluckily carried off the sub-prioress by mistake ! 

In 1848 Burton applied for the post of interpreter to a 
field-force going to besiege Multan, but a man was appointed 
who was far his inferior in linguistic capacity, and Burton, 
sick, depressed, and disappointed, went home, Here his 
sister's character had a good influence over him : she dis- 
couraged his practice of telling horrible tales against him- 
self, merely to astonish or frighten his listeners ; or his 
blundering way of fighting what he thought ignorance or 
prejudice by arguments and scorn that wounded men's 
vanity and made him many enemies for life. 

For Richard Burton was lacking in tact and good 
temper : if people bored him, he would calmly take up a 
book and so escape their folly ; he did not mind how he 
angered or insulted his opponents, so that, though there 
was nothing spiteful or envious in his nature, he stirred 
a nest of hornets about him wherever he moved. 

One of his first books was A Complete System of 
Bayonet Exercise, the study of which might have made 
our troops more efficient in the Crimean War. But all 
Burton got for his pains was a snub from the War Office, 
"because bayonet exercise might make the men unsteady 
in the ranks." Those were the days of drill without reason, 
and of rushing en masse upon the enemy. 

The next project Burton had in hand was a pilgrimage 
to Mecca, in which, under a Mohammedan disguise, he visited 
the Mosque and Prophet's tomb, and the title of Hadji served 
him in good stead afterwards. 

On his return to Bombay he soon sought and obtained 
another furlough for a tour into Somaliland. Lieutenant 
Speke and Burton were to venture into Harar, the capital 
city, which no European had yet entered. 

In October 1854, Hadji Abdullah, a Moslem merchant, 

53 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

alias Richard Burton, sailed from Aden to Zeila, where he 
made himself at home with the governor's son and the 
principal men, treating them every evening to stories from 
the Arabian Nights. 

There were delays, of course, before the travellers could 
get permission to go inland ; but after tedious marches 
Burton fell sick and had to halt at a kraal, where the 
natives crowded round to offer medical advice. This 
happened again in the Girhi highlands, when the chief's 
wife sacrificed a sheep for his welfare. At length he reached 
Harar, but was obliged to declare his English nationality, 
since some suspected him of being a Turk, a nation then in 
bad odour with the Somalis. 

Burton visited the Amir, and left the impression that he 
was a very holy man : he had not been so fortunate with 
his own countrymen. 

On January 26th he started on mule-back for Berberah, 
being sometimes drenched with rain, sometimes scorched 
and thirsty ; they could buy no food nor milk at the 
wretched huts, and at length it began to be a race with 
death, when, marching along the coast, they spied shipping 
and the port of Berberah. However, a second journey was 
planned with Speke, Heme, and Strogan as comrades, but 
300 of the wild hill-men swooped down upon Burton's 
camp, speared Lieutenant Strogan, and inflicted eleven flesh 
wounds upon Speke. Burton himself had a Somali javelin 
driven into his upper jaw, and the wound was so severe 
that he was forced to go on sick leave to England. 

There he found that his mother had died a month ago. 
As soon as he was able to speak distinctly he read a paper 
on Harar before the Royal Geographical Society. But the 
Crimean War was then absorbing all interest, and little 
notice was taken of his perilous adventure. 

Then this restless rover went to the Crimea on the 

54 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

chance of getting a billet ; he managed to get into 
"Beatson's Horse," but General Beatson was almost more 
given to telling unpalatable truths than Burton was, and 
he had made his Bashi-Bazouks vastly unpopular. 

Burton set to work and soon made his men good swords- 
men. But " irregulars " were overlooked, and no opportunity 
was given them of distinguishing themselves. 

Once Burton, in his desire to lead his men to the sup- 
port of Kars, whose garrison was on the point of surrender 
to the Russians, had the courage to hasten to Lord Strat- 
ford, our aged ambassador at Constantinople. To him the 
young, self-reliant officer unfolded a scheme for relieving 
Kars. Alas ! the only reply vouchsafed was, " You are the 
most impudent young man, sir, in the Bombay army ! " 
Poor, eager Burton did not then know that Lord Stratford 
had already arranged that Kars should fall — as a peace- 
offering to Russia. General Beatson was removed from his 
command, and Burton returned to England in a despondent 
mood. 

"It is no good learning languages or teaching your men 
to fight," he thought in his bitterness ; " only favour and 
interest tell in the English army — 111 have no more of it ! " 

And once more Burton's thoughts turned to exploration 
and to Africa. Sir Roderick Murchison and other in- 
fluential friends obtained for him the command of an 
expedition to the Central Lakes, at that time believed 
to be one vast inland sea ; the Royal Geographical 
Society gave him ^lOOO, and Captain Speke accompanied 
him. Lord Elphinstone arranged that a sloop of war 
should convey them from Bombay to the African coast 
to give them prestige in the eyes of the natives. They 
resolved to employ some months in exploring the coast, and 
started from Zanzibar for Mombasa in February 1857, 
having with them a letter from the Sultan to various chiefs 

55 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

on the road. Their chief guide was a man nicknamed 
"Bombay," slight of frame but untiring and plucky. He 
afterwards became Speke's head-man, and later was chief 
of Stanley's caravan. 

After a long agony of steaming plains, biting ants, 
thunderstorms, and woodland tunnels, they were glad to 
issue from dripping canopies of banana and plantain, and 
climb by a steep goat-track to a more bracing air, 4000 feet 
high. Sultan Kimwere, old, wrinkled, diseased and greedy, 
tried to detain them as doctors in Fuga ; but they sped on 
with whimpering escort, for the cold rain troubled them 
much. They had covered 150 miles in eleven days, and 
taken some valuable details for maps ; but fever came, and 
a day's hunting made it worse : when they again reached 
Zanzibar they were only fit for bed. 

It was not until June 1857 that the main expedition 
for the interior started from Zanzibar, for the difficulty 
of providing porters caused endless delays ; the caravan, 
too, was badly equipped, and the goods were mean and 
cheap. 

It was not Burton's fault : he was not a rich man, like 
Baker ; his thousand pounds had to go a long way. For 
Speke and Grant's caravan cost £2500, while Stanley's last 
adventure cost some i?27,000. 

It was impossible therefore to prevent the men from 
deserting by offers of increased pay, and they started off 
slowly through swamp and jungle. Burton and Speke rode 
on asses sometimes, but usually walked ; the ground varied 
from soft, squelching morass to stony and heated goat- 
walks. 

By July 14th they had covered 118 miles, but the 
humid vegetation and greasy bogs gave Burton an attack 
of marsh fever which prostrated him for twenty days, while 
Speke was suffering in the head from a sunstroke. Now 

56 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

and then they came upon a slave caravan and rescued a few 
wretched boys and girls. It was a treat even to reach " Little 
Tamarind,"" 300 feet above the fetid plains, and healthy 
with prattling streams and clearer air. But everywhere 
they found the bones of the porters and slaves who had 
succumbed to their exertions, the ruins of raided villages, 
and the debris of nets and drums and African utensils : 
sometimes they came upon a heap of ashes where some 
unhappy family had been burnt for sorcery. 

The journey across the Usagara chain of mountains, 
though arduous, yet pleased the travellers with a wealth 
of flowers and acid fruits, and the odour of sage, mimosa, 
and tamarind. Speke was here so weak that two men 
had to help him up the pass, but he recovered on the top 
sufficiently to scramble down to the plains of Ugogo. 

Four Sultans, or chiefs, had to be visited now in turn ; 
these men levied a blackmail upon all who crossed their 
dominions. 

Once Burton, feeling faint, had fallen behind his party ; 
but Bombay returned for him, bringing an ass and food and 
helpful sympathy. 

By November the 7th they had reached Kazeh, a large 
station on a plateau some 4000 feet high. Both the climate 
and the society were an improvement : it was full of polite 
Arabs, who welcomed Hadji Burton as a brother. From 
no one did the travellers receive more hospitality and 
information than from Snay bin Amir, an Arab merchant. 
This man had travelled three times between Unyamwezi and 
the coast, had navigated Lake Tanganyika, and visited 
Uganda : without his help and advice it is doubtful if 
Burton would have discovered the lakes. Five weeks 
Burton and Speke remained at Kazeh, and they heard 
from their Arab friend and host that in twenty marches 
they would reach Ujiji, on the Tanganyika. 

57 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

When they left for Ujiji Burton had to be carried in 
a hammock, but the sight of the open country and wooded 
hills partly made up for the jolting ; while the sunset hour 
and the evening chats with a circle of black men, grand- 
dames, and maids of fourteen and under, all smoking their 
long, black -bowled pipes, furnished a varied entertainment. 

So on, and ever on, through fords and swamps and 
jungles, and over high pastures sprinkled with high-humped 
cattle, sheep, and goats, over scented hills and across 
brawling torrents and smooth-flowing rivers — till one morn- 
ing in February, after breasting a steep and rocky hill, they 
saw afar something shining. 

" What is that streak of light which lies below ? " asked 
Burton. 

" I am of opinion," replied Bombay, " that it is the 
water." 

In a few minutes the soft blue of Lake Tanganyika, 
basking in the tropical sunshine, broke clearly into view : 
there below them were the rough stones of the foreground, 
then the strip of green ; beyond this the ribbon of yellow 
sand, the border of rushes and papyrus, and the thirty 
miles of gleaming water crisped and curled by the pleasant 
east wind. In the far beyond rose a wall of mountains 
half-veiled in mist, and mysterious with changes of hue 
and form, of brae and glen. 

It was more lovely than the Mediterranean, and the 
party remained long to gaze upon the enchanting view : 
even the porters seemed to find pleasure in so wonderful 
a panorama of wood and water and distant hill. But here 
Burton's health failed utterly, and Speke had to go on 
without him in quest of the lakes beyond. He was away 
nearly a month, while Burton had to lie under a tree, writing 
up his diary, smoking and dozing, and blaming his luck. 

When Speke returned on March 29th, he startled 

58 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

Burton by asserting that he had found " the Mountains 
of the Moon. 11 Burton threw cold water on the idea, and 
from this time the two explorers began to drift apart in 
sympathy. Burton was vexed at being obliged to lie 
in idleness, and Speke was so enthusiastic about his dis- 
coveries that he could brook no sceptical questioning. 

On the 23rd of April they got some wretched-looking 
canoes and paddled across for nine hours to the opposite 
or western shore of the lake. Then going northward along 
the western bank they landed in a sandy bay at Uvira, 
where the Tanganyika is only some eight miles broad. 

Crowds of natives welcomed them with horns and tom- 
toms and grotesque dances. Before returning they discovered 
that the river Rusizi flows into the lake ; but a tremendous 
storm nearly sank them, and sent the Moslems in fright to 
the prayers which they had been neglecting. 

When the monsoon broke, the climate became delightful 
and the nights were fresh and cool ; but the natives in Ujiji 
were inhospitable, and food was scarce. In these countries 
"baggage is life, 11 and very few loads of beads and cloth 
now remained. It was growing serious, when on the 22nd 
of May musket shots were heard outside their camp, and 
a large convoy of goods came in, the gift of the kindly 
Sheikh, Snay bin Amir. This saved them, and after some 
rows with their porters they came back safely to Kazeh and 
were welcomed by the wealthy Arab merchant, who pro- 
vided them with a pleasant hut and plenty of rice and 
curried fowl and sugared omelettes, strangely flavoured with 
ghee and onions. Here Burton resolved to stay three 
months, for here he could pick the brains of Snay and get 
materials for his new book on The Lake Regions. But 
he hereby lost the chance of a great discovery, for Speke 
again went alone to explore another lake which the Arabs 
were speaking of. Six weeks Speke was away with his 

59 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

little caravan equipped by Snay ; and when he returned, 
flushed with success, and announced enthusiastically that 
he had found a great inland sea, the " Victoria Nyanza," 
and that this was without doubt the main source of the 
Nile, Burton was again nettled, perhaps, too, a little jealous 
of his subordinate, and he advanced certain arguments 
against Speke's hasty conclusion. 

Surely, he remarked, a lake can only be a reservoir : the 
true source must be the rivers that flow down from the 
mountains, fed by monsoon torrents and the melting snows. 

But Speke would listen to no such arguments : the 
Victoria Nyanza was the sole source of the Nile, and the 
man who disbelieved what he had seen with his own eyes 
could be no friend of his. 

After three months pleasantly spent at Kazeh, as 
money was failing and their leave was expiring, they felt 
bound to return to the coast. Burton had already spent 
^1400 of his own, besides the i?1000 granted to 
him ; and if it had not been for the generosity of 
their Arab friends they would have been in great straits. 
They reached Zanzibar in March 1859, and went to Aden ; 
but Burton was too ill with fever to go on, and Speke re- 
turned alone to London. Here he gave a public lecture, 
and became the lion of the season ; while Burton, returning 
a fortnight later, found that a new expedition was to be 
equipped, of which Speke was to be the leader. 

Naturally Burton was hurt by what seemed the im- 
patience of his subordinate to win the chief applause. 

" Blue - eyed, tawny - maned Jack " had forfeited his 
friendship ; for Burton considered it was a breach of faith, 
and retired, ill and depressed, to Dover, where his married 
sister was living, and gave himself up to the writing of his 
book on The Lake Regions. 

However, he could not long rest in one place, and he 

60 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

soon set off for America and Salt Lake City ; of all this he 
made another book. In January 1861, at the age of forty, 
Burton married Miss Isabel Arundell, a staunch Roman 
Catholic, handsome and fascinating ; but the lady, too, was 
lacking in tact, and did not make Burton's social relations 
any easier for him. In addition, they were both possessed 
of very small means, so Burton applied for a consular 
appointment, and was sent to Fernando Po, a place unfit 
for a lady to stay in, for it was then an unhealthy island, 
situated a little south-east of the mouth of the Niger on 
the West African Coast. 

As Burton went in a trading steamer he was able to see 
many ports on the coast, and picked up some knowledge of 
the natives and their language. The " Krumen " he calls 
the coolies of West Africa : they have dark skins and short 
hair, which they shave when in mourning. They tattoo 
their skin and chip the teeth ; the latter they wash after 
every meal, and this may account for their good preserva- 
tion. Their favourite ornaments are strings of leopards 1 
teeth and chains of brass and iron, beads of glass and 
porcelain, and bracelets of ivory worn on the wrists. The 
women do most of the work and wear scanty clothing. The 
Krumen are very sensitive to pain, cowards in face of danger, 
and arrant thieves. They are good sailors, and can row 
forty miles at a stretch ; when they have made thus a little 
money they like to return home and live with their wives. 
On the husband's death the wife becomes the property of his 
brother. They soon pick up English words, and can dis- 
tinguish dialects, as is seen by their describing Scotsmen 
as "bush-English." They are fond of relieving their task 
by singing, are fond of mimicking and telling comical 
stories. 

Their favourite food is rice, which they squeeze into a 
ball in either hand and swallow dry, but if given meat they 

61 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

will scramble and fight for it like wild dogs. They are, of 
course, lazy, and cannot be trusted out of sight. The landing 
at Cape Coast Castle was dangerous, owing to the surf, but the 
native boatmen, Fantis, are very clever in dodging the rollers. 

Burton found much ill-feeling between the white and 
black races on the Gold Coast ; there were only about 100 
Europeans in the land, not all of the best sort, and the 
Africans were fond of going to law and getting the best 
of it over the poor whites. 

Sharks abound on the West Coast ; crocodiles and 
alligators you may beat off, but sharks with their dull, 
pale-blue eye, are not to be denied. Few men survive a 
shark-bite, and often lose a hand too by snatching mechani- 
cally at the limb first attacked. 

Bonny, once the great slave market of the West, export- 
ing 16,000 souls a year, now exports palm-oil ; but Burton saw 
enough of the savage treatment of black men by black to 
make him doubt whether the African negro taken as slave 
to America did not exchange a cruel for a less cruel master ; 
for, he says, the Africans take a physical delight in cruelty 
to beast as well as to man. In almost all the towns on the 
oil rivers you see dead or dying animals fastened in some 
agonising position. If a man be unwell, he hangs a live 
chicken round his throat, hoping that the fowl's pain will 
absorb his own sufferings. Goats are lashed head down- 
wards to wooden pillars to die a lingering death. At 
funerals numbers of goats and poultry are sacrificed, and 
the corpse is sprinkled with their warm blood. 

We have to remember how " the whole creation groans 
in agony * when we are asked by what right we set foot on 
the negro's land. If we cannot make him wiser and better 
and his country more fertile and healthy we must make way 
for those who can. Evolution is a very painful process, but 
stagnation is worse. 

62 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

As soon as Burton arrived at Fernando Po he moved the 
consulate from its unhealthy site near the harbour to a 
spot 800 feet above the sea, having a lovely view of the 
distant Cameroon Mountains. It was not long before he 
managed to join an expedition sent by Government to expos- 
tulate with the Chief of Abbeokuti on his so far forgetting 
his treaties as to cook and eat his fattened enemies. 

This town had been depicted as mainly Christian, but 
Burton saw in it a low type of negro, mostly savages, and 
the streets were scavenged solely by pigs and vultures. He 
stayed some time at the Church Missionary Society's station, 
and his heart bled for the sickly wives and children of the 
mission compound, though he was no great friend of missions. 

Abbeokuti was in 1861 governed by a drunken and 
hideous old chief, who hung his head sullenly when 
reproached for such cruelties as lashing young women to 
poles and leaving them to be torn piecemeal by buzzards, 
in order to form a charm for bringing rain. The Alake 
signed a few more treaties with his tongue in his cheek and 
a wink for his Prime Minister ; and Captain Bedingfleld 
returned to Lagos with the new consul. Other trips he 
took were to the Cameroons and the French Gaboon, where 
he in vain sought an introduction to the gorilla in its native 
haunt. In November 1863 Burton was appointed Commis- 
sioner to protest against the slave-trade and other cruelties 
before King Gelele of Dahomey. Mrs. Burton, in England, 
hearing of this, wrote to ask if she might accompany her 
husband, as she had an idea that a magic lantern and some 
biblical slides might convert the king to Catholicism. 

Burton wrote home, saying that her scheme would be 
regarded as the work of magic, and might result in their 
both being converted into sausage meat for good negroes. 

So the expedition sailed north-west to Whydah without 
her, and fifty-nine porters carried the baggage containing 

63 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

presents. Dr. Cruickshank, of the Antelope, accompanied 
the consul. All through the sixty-nine miles from the 
Port to Abomey, the capital, the party was received by 
dancing natives who yelled like demons. 

The mention of presents brought the king out from an 
inquiry into the moral conduct of his Amazon regiments, 
which was troubling him. 

King Gelele was an athletic man of forty years, six feet 
high ; his eyes were red and inflamed, and his nose slightly 
cocked. He wore a straw cap with a human tooth below 
the crown, as a fetish against sickness ; a body-cloth of 
white stuff and drawers of purple embroidered silk. 

Gorgeous sandals, gold-embroidered, were on his feet, 
and iron bracelets covered his arms. Behind him sat a 
throng of wives in a semicircle, who tended their lord 
very devotedly with offer of napkin, pipe, or spittoon. 

After the ceremony of drinking healths, performed by 
the king behind a screen formed by his wives, salutes were 
fired, and the Amazons rang bells. These ladies wore a 
narrow fillet of blue round the head, and sleeveless vest and 
body-wrapper dyed and fastened at the waist by a long sash. 
Their arms were knife and fire-lock, and their chief perform- 
ance seemed to be dancing : though some of the veterans 
were far too fat either to fight or dance. 

The next day they went on in hammocks to Abomey, 
the capital, situated on a rolling plain of rich red clay, in 
which grew abundantly large groves of oil-palms, yams, 
oranges, and maize. 

The town is surrounded by a deep ditch and clay walls 
pierced by six gates, on which grinned many polished skulls. 
Burton was received into the Prime Minister's house, a sort 
of barn, which was crammed with ugly dirty fetishes. Here 
they had to wait until the trial of the Amazons was over, 
and the king could enter his Komasi Palace. 

64 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

When Gelele did come he at once asked to see the 
visitor's presents ; in spite of all he wore a gloomy look, 
for many of his Amazons had broken their vow and 
executions had been necessary. 

It was now the time of the " Customs," a week of cruelty 
and fetishism, and Burton, seeing the victim- shed in the 
market-place, went in. 

He found there twenty victims seated on cane stools and 
bound to posts ; each had an attendant squatting behind 
him to brush away the flies, each was fed four times a day. 
Everything seemed to be done on the most humane prin- 
ciples, but things are not always what they seem. 

Burton asked the king to pardon the wretches. The 
king was delighted to oblige, and half the victims, in their 
calico shirts, were set on all-fours before the throne to 
receive the royal pardon. 

It was suspected that their doom was only deferred, for 
at night the death-drum boomed incessantly and more skulls 
kept cropping up. 

Next day, as Burton passed the victim-shed, he spied 
four corpses, attired in shirt and cap, and seated on stools 
as before ; but they had been clubbed to death. By 
request of the king, Burton danced before the Court, as he 
saw it was quite the smart thing to do ; his Hindustani 
steps won great applause from the king downward. 

Six weeks had now gone by, and as yet Burton had not 
had a chance of delivering her Majesty's message ; so he 
complained, and threatened to retire with all the presents 
next day if the king would not hear him. 

All the baggage was ordered to be packed, and then the 
king began to think the English envoy really meant to 
depart. So he sent for his ministers to inquire into the 
reason of this hurry. 

The Dahomey ministers delayed to come, and Gelele 

65 e 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

roared and stamped ; finally, when they did arrive, he 
shouted to the Amazon Guard : " Up ! drive the premier, 
the chancellor, and the whole lot of lazy statesmen away 
from my august presence ! Thrash them, and make their 
noble skins to bleed. " 

Then King Gelele sent to Burton a message of apology : 
he said a just anger prevented him from attending to 
business. 

However, next day Burton was ushered into the royal 
palace, where the king shook hands and said reproachfully — 

"We have eaten and drunk and danced together as 
friends : what are these complaints that I hear you bring 
against me ? " 

Burton brought out his own royal message, and read 
out to the king some of the nastier bits, to Gelele's evident 
rage. For he was told that Queen Victoria's Government 
was resolved to arrest the slave-trade, to stay human sacri- 
fices, and to appoint a resident agent at Whydah in order to 
see these things were carried out. 

" Certainly ! certainly ! " cried the king, biting his lip 
with vexation ; and, as he shook hands in saying adieu, he 
grunted out — 

" You are a good man — very good man, but too angry ! " 

In two days 1 time the permit for leaving Abomey was 
sent, together with some dainty presents for Queen Victoria, 
which Burton was enjoined to be very careful of. These 
were : — 

1. Two wretched half-starved boys to act as pages. 

2. A green and white counterpane made on the spot. 
S. A big leather pouch to hold tobacco. 

4. A huge leather bag to hold enemies'' skulls or other 
trifles. 

We are not sure if any of these are still to be seen at 
Windsor. 




The Trail of the Slave Hunters 

Sad evidence of a cruel and hateful traffic. 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

Burton managed in 1863 to visit the Fan cannibals, a fine 
race, chocolate- coloured, like all the mountaineer and inland 
people. 

When they saw Burton drink tea, one asked why he put 
sugar in tobacco water ? Their toilet was simple : thongs of 
goat or leopard skin girded the waist, while fans of palm- 
frond, smelling of grease and ochre, were thrust in the waist- 
belt both behind and before ; these were ornamented with 
green or white seed-beads. Both men and women tattooed 
their bodies, and wore a fetish horn hanging from the breast. 
All carried arms, battle-axes, jagged spears or knives, and 
square shields of elephant hide. 

Two missionaries told Burton that cannibalism was rare 
now, and partook of the nature of a religious ceremony 
practised only upon foes slain in battle. The body was 
eaten secretly by the warriors, the women and children 
receiving no invitation to the feast. 

Anthropophagy, or man-eating, extends to nearly all the 
tribes dwelling between the Niger and the Congo ; for they 
still believe that when you eat your enemy you imbibe a 
great part of his spirit and courage. 

They often torture their prisoners : the poison-bean, 
severe floggings, and burying alive are their favourite 
practices. 

But they have more civilised ways also : they grow 
tobacco and smoke it, use salt with their flesh-foods, and 
dance with grace. 

Burton was invited to dance with the king's eldest 
daughter, Gondebiza, who was fat and thirty ; she was 
modestly dressed in a thin pattern of tattoo, oil and cam- 
wood, with an apron of beads somewhat greasy. Necklaces 
and ankle-rings redeemed the body from its nudity. Two 
men formed the orchestra, but made sufficient noise to send 
Burton off to bed before supper was served, 

67 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

The Fan folk are brave and chaste, and will speak no lie ; 
in this they are superior to the coast tribes, who lie by 
instinct. The Fan are also cunning workers in iron, which 
is their coinage in bars. 

Burton found in this country an opportunity to inquire 
into the habits of the gorilla, and his Fan friends exploded 
for him some old notions. The gorilla, he was told, feared 
the leopard, and preferred wild fruits in the woods for 
himself and family ; his cry was a snappish bark, he could not 
stand up straight on his hind legs, he was essentially a tree- 
ape, and was not in the habit of boxing with his open paw, 
but was apt to show his tiger-teeth and disappear in the face 
of danger. 

A little later in the year Burton sailed up the Congo to 
the lower cataracts, called the Yellala Falls. It was a great 
and refreshing change from the damp and fetid heat of 
Fernando Po to the bracing air of the hills. 

Here too, as in East Africa, he found that the women did 
all the work, weaving, spinning, cooking, digging, &c. ; but 
they were robust and healthy, and their children vigorous. 
The Roman Catholic missioners had laboured amongst them 
for two hundred years with doubtful success, as most 
houses seemed stuck full of ugly idols and fetishes, side by 
side with the crucifix. 

About 117 miles from the mouth of the Congo, Burton 
came upon the Yellala Falls ; the bed of the river had 
narrowed from 900 to 300 yards, and was broken by rocks 
and reefs. The water, all afoam for a mile and a half above, 
rushed down an inclined plane of some thirty feet, tossing and 
colliding, throwing up a dingy-white spray. Blocks of 
granite and greenstone cropped out of the right bank, and 
large basins smoothly rounded by the waters pitted the 
shelving sides. 

Many natives were fishing here, and had planted weirs, 

68 ; 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

while fish-eagles sat upon the ledges watching the sport, and 
a flight of large cranes wheeled majestically in the upper air. 

The enormous " hongo," or tax, demanded by the " bush- 
kings " was sufficient to stay Burton's journey towards Nkulu ; 
but the exhilarating air of the uplands was very refreshing. 

Burton visited a quitanda, or market, before returning to 
Fernando Po : it was attended by natives living within a 
radius of twelve miles. Many were ultra-negro, of a dull- 
black type ; others were of a red variety with eyes and hair 
somewhat brown, and most were tattooed; huge welts of flesh, 
raised polished lumps that must have cost much suffering in 
the making, ornamented breast and back. The teeth also 
were mutilated and chipped into shapes. 

When Burton first appeared in the market the women 
rose in terror from their baskets and began to pack. An 
interpreter explained matters, and then fear changed to 
curiosity, and both sexes crowded round him with loud 
hootings of wonder ; at length they subsided to their pipes 
and smoked, with hunched shoulders and a body-shaking 
bark or cough, a sign of content. 

Here we must leave Burton, for after Fernando Po he was 
sent to Brazil and then to Damascus. 

When Burton was made consul at Damascus all the 
Mahometans were delighted that England had appointed 
one who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. His knowledge 
of Arabic and Persian introduced him to the Arab tribes ; 
but the Turkish Wali, or Governor-General, Rashid Pasha, 
was by no means friendly to him. 

At first all was delightful ; their house was surrounded 
by apricot orchards and groves of orange, lemon, and 
jessamine ; hard by was a rushing river, and the yellow 
desert was not far off if they wished for a gallop. 

Every Friday Lady Burton had a reception of all creeds 
and races ; it began at sunrise and lasted till sunset. Supper 

69 



SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 

was eaten on the roof, and sometimes their guests were Lady 
Ellenborough and the handsome Arab chief, Abd el Kadir. 

Lady Ellenborough had married a Bedawin Sheikh, and 
lived half the year in Damascus, half in the desert as the 
queen of her tribe. 

But as the Burtons began to see into the life of the poor, 
they came across a strong element of resistance which proved 
to be Sir Richard's discomfiture. No other consul had dared 
to protect the poor as he had done. 

Burton said bluntly, " I must do right ; I cannot sit still 
and see what I see and not speak the truth. I must protect 
the poor and save the British good name, advienne que pourra, 
though perhaps in so doing I shall fall myself. 1 "' 

In the end Lord Granville recalled this tiresome, truth- 
speaking consul, who insisted on offending people from a 
sense of duty. Burton had his faults of course ; with his 
intimates he could be fascinating and brilliant, but with 
strangers he was silent and sometimes boorish and rude, 
unless they were in trouble, and then he would do anything 
for them. Once at Trieste a British sailor was in trouble 
for knocking down a native soldier who had robbed him. 

" Burtin, I ham in trubel ; kum and let me haut. — Tim 
Trouncer." 

These were the sort of letters he used to receive. He 
went and got the sailor out, and had the soldier put in his 
place in gaol. 

He was generous but kept no accounts, and depended 
too much on the financial abilities of his wife. He was too 
self-reliant, feared no man, and loved to shock his audience 
by audacious statements, and made himself out to be much 
worse than he really was. He made staunch friends and 
bitter enemies ; his best friends were those of Eastern race, 
servants, children, and animals. They knew by instinct his 
good qualities ; by his equals he was too often misunder- 

70 



LINGUIST AND ADVENTURER 

stood. Burton's had been a strenuous but not very successful 
career ; somehow he missed success until late in life, and 
received no adequate recognition of his services until he was 
too worn to enjoy his honours. 

In 1885 he happened to be visiting Tangier when a 
telegram from Lord Salisbury was brought to him, inform- 
ing him that the Queen had appointed him a K.C.M.G. 
Burton was delighted with her Majesty's recognition, but 
he did not live long to enjoy his new prestige. A great 
linguist, an industrious writer, an able explorer, he had 
given himself no rest ; thoroughly exhausted and played 
out, he died in harness at his consulate in Trieste in the 
year 1890. 1 

1 In part from Lady Burton's Life of Sir Richard Burton, by kind 
permission of her executor, W. A. Coote, Esq. 



71 



CHAPTER IV 

SPEKE AND GRANT 

SIR SAMUEL BAKER has left this opinion on the two 
explorers whom he met at Gondokoro : " Speke was 
a painstaking, determined traveller, who worked out 
his object of geographical research without the slightest 
jealousy of others. He was a splendid fellow in every way. 
Grant was a fidus Achates to him, and assured me that to 
Speke alone all honour was due. Grant was one of the 
most loyal and charming characters in the world, perfectly 
unselfish ; he adored Speke. . . . Amiable and gentle to a 
degree that might to a stranger denote weakness, but, on 
the contrary, no man could show more strength of character 
or determination when he was offended. As a true friend, 
Speke was a hero." Grant in his Walk Across Africa tells 
us that he first became acquainted with Speke as far back 
as 1847, when he was serving in India with his regiment. 
They were both Indian officers and fond of field sports, and 
became great friends ; so, when Speke was commissioned by 
the Royal Geographical Society to prosecute his discovery of 
the Victoria Nyanza, and find out if the Nile did really flow 
from that gigantic lake, Grant offered to accompany him. 
On the 30th of April 1860, they embarked at Plymouth on 
board the Forte, 51 guns, bound for the Cape, and carrying 
Sir George Grey, the Governor of the Cape ; by his influence 
Speke obtained a grant of i?300 from the Cape Parliament 
for mules, and ten sturdy volunteers to cross Africa. In 
Delagoa Bay Grant had his first experience of the African, 

72 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

whom he found bright-witted and keen in contrast to the 
gentle Hindu. They reached Zanzibar on the 17th of 
August, and were not ready to leave it for the interior until 
October. Meanwhile they saw some strange sights to pre- 
pare their nerves for what was to follow. They visited the 
slave market, a triangular space surrounded by rickety huts 
thatched with cocoa-nut leaves. Negro slaves were sitting 
there guarded by men with swords, and looking clean and 
neat, but depressed and anxious, appealing mutely with 
dark eyes, " Buy me from this yoke of slavery." 

The price of a slave at this time was £S 9 being lower 
than usual. The Sultan of Zanzibar had politely offered 
them the loan of his riding-horses, and had offered also an 
escort of twenty -five soldiers for the first thirteen stages ; 
they were to march inland 500 miles to Kazeh in seventy- 
one days ; sixty-four Seedee boys, Africans of the coast, and 
115 porters carried their kit and barter. For as the 
African knows no coinage, all has to be paid in wire, 
cloth, and beads. There were then no roads — now there is 
a railway. The whole kit was divided into loads of 50 lbs. 
each, without lock or key, and the porters wasted a whole 
day in testing the weight of the loads, in squabbling and 
grumbling. Their captain, distinguished by a high head- 
dress of ostrich plumes, led the caravan in single file with 
a great assumption of dignity at the rate of three and a 
half miles an hour. Whenever this gentleman stopped to 
rest, the other porters, almost naked negroes, would lie down 
and take snuff, or smoke, and sometimes sing in chorus. At 
night the loads were stacked, a camp was fenced, and the 
day's wages were paid to each, being a portion of cloth or a 
necklace of beads. 

In the camp there was such a noise of laughter and 
jollity, of merry song and dance, with rattle of drums, 
jingling of bells, beating of old iron, and repeating of 

73 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

arguments, that Speke and Grant were often unable to 
hear themselves talk. 

On leaving the coast their path ran up a broad, flat, dry 
valley of grass and trees for twenty marches ; at the ninth 
stage they saw from a ridge of sandstone distant hills to 
the north-west ; in a few more days they crossed the East 
African chain, 4750 feet high, and reached Ugogo, a 
plateau without a river. 

In November it became quite cool towards evening, but 
many of the men began to suffer from fever. One evening 
a soldier named Kalian blew off one of his middle fingers 
with his rifle, and came into camp, bellowing with rage, 
and saying, "Look here what I have suffered by being 
persuaded to come on this horrible journey ! bleeding to 
death ! " Grant had to cut off the finger with a razor, 
and made a beautiful flap operation, skin being taken 
from the inside of the hand. The mules sickened and 
died, but the donkeys kept up their health and spirits? 
fraternising at nights with the wild zebras. 

At one point of their journey food became so scarce that 
one night the entire dinner consisted of two ears of Indian 
corn each and some salt. As a rule the natives could gather 
herbs by the way, but now, with empty stomachs, their 
spirits sank and a silent gloom fell on the sullen camp ; 
men refused to march next day, and some had to be flogged 
as a warning to evil-doers. 

However, Speke next day shot a rhinoceros, and the whole 
camp fell on it tooth and nail, with sudden elevation of 
spirits. Grant says : " Wounding a large female rhinoceros 
one night, I next day traced her spoor for four miles, and 
suddenly came upon her squatting like a hare in her form, 
Avith her back towards me. There was a great deal of 
whining near the spot, which I took to be her dying 
cries. ... I soon saw that the poor old lady was cold 

74 




Speke on the Brink of the Nile 

Most beautiful was the scene ; a magnificent stream dotted with islets and rocks. 



\ 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

dead : it was the young one weeping over its mother 
that caused the plaintive cries I had heard." 

Mohinna, the chief of the Arabs in the caravan, had 
been politely requested by Speke not to beat his women 
slaves so brutally. 

Mohinna bowed low and promised to be more merciful, 
but next day all his women were soundly flogged and then 
put in the stocks to prevent their coming to Speke to 
complain. 

All Arabs in Central Africa seem a degraded set, trading 
in slaves and necessarily cruel. The slaves were poorly fed 
on sweet potatoes and a spinage of pumpkin. Clad in a single 
goat-skin they huddled together on their chain at night near 
a fire ; if one required to move, the whole chain must go too, 
for they were fastened night and day. One man, who had 
been five years in chains, was heard by Speke to say that 
life was a burden to him, he wished to die. 

" Shall we buy the poor fellow ? He looks intelligent ; the 
leader of his gang." So his chains were struck off with a 
hammer while he lay with his head on a block. " Get up, 
sir ; you are a free man," said Speke. 

The poor fellow looked bewildered : were they making 
fun of him ? At last, attired in a clean sheet of calico, his 
manly dignity seemed to grow again, and he came to bow 
his thanks. " This man," says Grant, " never deserted us 
the whole journey. It was his good fortune to reach Cairo 
with the character of a faithful servant." 

The delays of several months at a time caused by the 
desertion of porters kept them long on their journey, and 
sometimes Speke would forge ahead sixty miles or more in 
the hope of finding volunteers. Then the men would 
waste half the day in grumbling or making excuses for 
desertion. 

One says, " My wife is ill ; I return my hire." Another 

75 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

says, "My mother will not allow me to go with white 
men, who are cannibals." Or the chief of the tribe 
wants more "hengo," or presents, and detains them all 
for many weeks. The patience of Job is sorely tried in 
Africa. 

Sometimes they came upon lovely scenery and neat 
villages, and once, on asking for water, Grant was pleased 
to hear, " Would you not rather have milk ? " and he was 
led up to a beautiful, lady-like creature, a Watusi woman, 
who welcomed him in the most dignified manner, her bare 
arms and neck being ornamented with coils of brass wire. " I 
was struck with her graceful long neck, the beauty of her fine 
eyes, mouth, and nose, the smallness of her hands and naked 
feet — all were faultless. " This natural lady gave him butter- 
milk to drink, and butter on a clean leaf. Grant does not 
mention the small item of bread : the baker, perhaps, had 
not called that day ! When they came to Karague they 
found the king, Rumanika, both handsome and intelligent ; 
he stood six feet two inches in height, and his countenance 
had a fine open expression. He was dressed in a robe made 
of antelope skins, with a shawl of bark-cloth from the 
shoulder to the knee. His five wives were so fat that they 
could not enter the doors of an ordinary hut ; they thrived 
on milk and boiled plantain. Rumanika was prophet, 
priest, and king. His sons, clean and gentlemanly, had 
fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting the 
best blood in Abyssinia, whence they were sprung. After 
being thoroughly delighted with the king's intelligence 
and humanity, they were a little startled when, after a 
month's pleasant intercourse, Rumanika proposed that the 
Englishmen should give him a magic charm to kill his 
brother. 

His brother, Rogero, had tried to oust Rumanika and 
make himself king. Of course, Speke and Grant denied 

76 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

they had any such charm, and expressed disapproval of the 
king's desire. 

" Oh ! I would not kill my brother, even if I caught 
him ; I would merely gouge out his eyes and set him at 
large again," said the king dreamily. He was fond of 
theological discussions, and once asked them why they 
spent so much property in travel when they might sit 
down and enjoy it. 

"We have had our fill of the luxuries of life — we are 
above trade and need no profits ; we only want to see God's 
beautiful world — His vast creation." So Rumanika showed 
them his lovely lake 500 feet beneath the wooded hills, and 
they had a sort of picnic in the woods, and saw how the 
river Kagera drained into the great Victoria Nyanza. 

On the 10th of January, as Grant was ill and lame from 
fever, Speke left him at Karague and went on for Uganda. 

The family at the palace were very kind to Grant, came 
to sit with him, and the young sons brought him flowers, 
birds-nests and eggs. Grant slept in the open air, and was 
more than once aroused by the sniffing of a hyena. 

M'tesa was at that time King of Uganda, a young and 
intelligent native, fond of sport, and strict even to cruelty. 
For instance, if his officers absented themselves frequently 
from court they were condemned to death. If any one at 
court was untidy in his dress, or showed a piece of bare leg, 
off went his head 1 — unless he was rich and could compound 
for his offence by giving the king large presents. Though 
the attire of the men was so strictly guarded, the king's 
women wore very little clothing. Thanks were rendered for 
word or deed by grovelling on the ground and whining like 
a happy puppy, the word " n'yanzig," or " thanks," being 
repeated many times. All had to approach the king with 
downcast eyes and on bended knees ; to touch the royal 
seat or clothes, or look upon his women, was certain death. 

77 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

A large company of pages were at hand to run on messages. 
When the king is tired of business, he rises, spear in hand, 
and leading his dog, walks off without word or comment. 

When the king goes for a walk, or to bathe in the lake, 
some two hundred women run after him, and before him 
go the pages and musicians ; any common man meeting 
the procession is hunted down by the pages and flogged or 
killed. 

M'tesa was very curious to see white men, and had given 
orders that Speke should be conducted to his palace. 

When Speke came within sight of the hill covered with 
gigantic huts, he wished to enter at once, but the Waganda 
officers said, " No, that would be considered indecent ; you 
must draw up your men and fire your guns off, to let the 
king know you are here ; we will then show you where you 
are to sleep."' 1 

So Speke was shown into the guest-huts, full of flies, 
which he ousted by setting the floor on fire ; and whilst he 
slept one of the officers came in with all his wives to beg 
for beads. 

Next day, attired in his best, servants carrying presents, 
comprising a rifle, a chronometer, a revolver, three swords, 
and ammunition, Speke advanced up a broad path to a 
cleared square, while admiring courtiers, with both hands to 
their mouths, cried, " Irungi ! Irungi ! " (Beautiful !). The 
sides of the hill were covered with huge grass huts, thatched 
as neatly as so many heads dressed by a London barber, and 
fenced round with tall, yellow reeds of tiger-grass. 

At the second court, men of high dignity awaited him, 
all scrupulously clean and neat. Bulls, dogs, and goats were 
led about by strings, cocks and hens were carried in men's 
arms. 

Speke was ordered to sit upon the ground and wait in 
the sun ; but he had resolved to be treated as a prince, and 

78 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

refused to sit, to the consternation of his own men, who 
feared the consequences. However, Speke strode off in 
wrath back to his hut ; but the king sent messengers, who 
fell on their knees and implored him to return, for the king 
would not taste food till he had seen him. 

After some delay, Speke made a second visit, hat in 
hand, and waited with umbrella up outside the throng of 
squatting courtiers, having ordered his guard to close ranks 
around him. 

Those of the Waganda who wore leopard- cat skins girt 
round the waist were of royal blood, he was informed. 
M'tesa, a good-looking, well-formed young man of twenty- 
five, was sitting on a red blanket spread upon a platform 
of royal grass encased in tiger-grass reeds ; his hair was cut 
short, save on the top, where it was combed up into a high 
ridge running from front to back like the comb of a cock ; 
his arms and legs were decorated with small beads, and on 
every finger and toe he had alternate brass and copper rings. 
A piece of bark served him as a handkerchief to wipe his 
mouth after his frequent drinks of plantain wine. A white 
dog, spear, shield, and women were the Uganda cognizance. 
For an hour these two sat staring at each other. The king 
commented to his two hundred wives on the umbrella and 
red cloaks of Speke's guard ; he then strode off, imitating 
unsuccessfully the stride of the king of beasts. 

A second interview came after the king's breakfast, and 
then presents were exhibited on a red blanket. Speke took 
from his finger a gold ring, and offered it as a token of 
friendship. IVTtesa was like a child with his toys, and 
fingered rifle and chronometer until it grew dark. Next 
morning he sent in twenty cows and ten goats — "his few 
chickens," he called them. Day after day the king sent for 
Speke, and they grew quite friendly. One day four cows 
were in the court, and Speke was asked to shoot them. " I 

79 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

borrowed the revolver I had given him, and shot all four in 
a second of time ; but as the last one, only wounded, turned 
sharply upon me, I gave him the fifth, and settled him. 1 ' 
Great applause followed this feat, to them so wonderful. 
The next feat did not please the English soldier ; for the 
king lent the carbine which Speke had given him to a page, 
and told him to go into the outer court and shoot a man. 
The urchin returned grinning with glee. 

" Did you do it well ? " asked the king. 

" Oh yes ! capital fun ! " 

Speke found it difficult to converse with the king about 
routes, or the escort for Grant, but every day was taken 
up in shooting birds or buffaloes. The queen-mother sent 
for him, and the fat old lady was very agreeable. She re- 
tailed all her ailments, and demanded medicine ; she was 
also delighted with the picture books brought her. 

The king called Speke " Bana," and was never tired of 
seeing him shoot. One day he shot a vulture on the wing, 
when M'tesa jumped frantically in the air, clapped hands 
above his head, and sang out, " Woh ! woh ! what wonders ! 
Oh, Bana, you work miracles ; look, women, at what Bana has 
done." Another day the executioner's son for some slight 
offence was brought in for decapitation. Speke begged the 
king to pardon him. " Can it be possible that Bana has asked 
for this ? " said the king, and in great glee ordered the lad's 
release, to the father's great delight. 

Grant tells us Speke's officer, Bombay, met that same 
father next day, and was told that the poor boy had been 
killed the evening before for another offence. 

We must remember that M'tesa became the father of 
MVaga, the king who, twenty years later, had Bishop 
Hannington put to death. 

" Nearly every day," says Speke, " I have seen two or 
three wretched palace women led away to execution, hands 

80 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

tied in front, and crying out as they were dragged by 
one of the bodyguard, ' Hai Minange ' (O my Lord), ' Hai 
N'yawo ! ' (My Mother !) at the top of their voice, in the utmost 
despair and lamentation ; and yet there was not a soul who 
dared lift hand to save any of them." 

For stealing and adultery, sometimes the culprits were 
ordered to be dismembered, bit by bit, as rations for the 
vultures. 

Again, for an attempt to kill the king by a boy, only a 
fine of a goat was exacted. The boy, finding the king 
alone, had threatened to kill him because he took the lives 
of men unjustly. M'tesa held the unloaded pistol to the 
boy's cheek, and he at once ran away. 

The king was so delighted by the effect produced by the 
pistol that he all but pardoned the boy. 

Again, during a water picnic, as the royal party strolled 
through a grove picking fruit, a charming girl, one of the 
king's wives, plucked a fruit and offered it to the king ; but 
he, like a madman, flew into a passion, swore she was impu- 
dent, and ordered the pages to lead her off to execution. 
She resisted them. The other women knelt and implored the 
king to forgive her : the more they craved for mercy the 
more savage he grew, and ended by beating her on the head 
with a heavy stick. 

Speke's English blood could stand no more of this ; he 
rushed at the king, stayed his uplifted arm, and demanded 
the woman's life. 

M'tesa, utterly astonished (for he had never been opposed 
before), could but smile and give his assent. 

Meanwhile, Grant had some hopes of leaving Karague 
to join Speke ; for in March 1862 M'tesa sent an officer and 
forty men to convoy him to Uganda. These men would not 
carry his luggage, so three-fourths of it was left behind 
with King Rumanika. Grant got into a wicker stretcher, 

81 F 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

and four Waganda trotted off with him at five miles an 
hour. Every mile, or less, the stretcher was put down, 
that the bearers might rest, laugh, joke, and click their 
tongues to the roofs of their mouths. 

It was no good grumbling at being shaken ; the best 
way, he found, was to grin and bear it. Each man had a 
spear and shield over his back, their bark-cloth was kilted 
up to secure them from boggy ground, and in the evening 
they all changed into a dress-suit of goat-skins, pretty and 
neat ; some carried dogs tied to their wrists, and when they 
drew near a village they all gave a triumphant shout : were 
they not carrying a white prince ? Mariboo, the officer, 
followed by drummer-boy and dog, stepped gaily in front. 

After forty miles over stony ridges and through boggy 
valleys they came to the river Kitangule, where the plain 
was studded with ant-mounds eight feet high. The stream 
was almost hidden by the papyrus, growing sixty yards 
wide. The canoes, fifteen feet long, carried fifteen men 
with dogs and spears, and were propelled by long poles. 

Grant wished to sound for the depth, but was not 
allowed, lest the spirit of the river should be angered. 
The current was strong and the body of water was great 
in volume, being some eighty yards across. 

Some fowls they had with them were killed before they 
crossed the river, because, if the hippopotamus heard them 
crow, he would upset the canoes. 

On reaching the Victoria Nyanza an order came from 
M'tesa that the party were to travel by land, to Grant's 
annoyance. 

The escort helped themselves at every village they came 
to, and their hosts had to retire to the nearest hill ; this 
was the rule when a king's guest was travelling. Once the 
governor of a large province called on Grant when he was 
dressing in a hut. Mariboo had often talked of this prince, 

82 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

Pokino ; so when Grant came out and saw a man sitting in 
state with twenty Waganda crouching around, he could not 
help saying aloud : " Hello ! is this Pokino ? " 

At once all grinned at the mention of the name, but 
Pokino kept a dignified silence. After a long pause, Grant 
asked him what he would like to see. " Pictures and lucifer 
matches," he grunted rather shortly, but went away well 
satisfied. He had struck a match ! 

On the 27th of May 1862, Grant arrived at the Uganda 
capital. The two friends had been separated more than four 
months. " I was deeply thankful,'' 1 says Grant, " and felt 
that my prayers for safety had been heard." 

" I think, Speke, I shall go to see the king to-morrow in 
my knickerbockers. " 

" My dear fellow — impossible 1 A bare leg is treason — 
penalty death ! " 

So Grant had to visit M'tesa in white flannel trousers. 
The king at once saw that Grant's hand had been mutilated, 
and asked how that had happened ; doubtless he thought it 
had been a penalty for crime, and had been done at Windsor 
Castle. So Grant had to explain how it was done in action 
before the enemy. 

When Grant was shown the ladies he was bidden to 
remove his hat and exhibit his hair ; and they all tittered 
to see such straight thin hair. As they left the Court a 
woman's screams made them look back. A cord was tied 
round her wrist, and a man dragged her, almost naked, 
down the hill to be executed ; she was screaming " Mother ! 
mother ! " in heartrending accents. 

" A shudder of horror crept over me. Had we been the 
cause of this calamity ? and could the young prince with 
whom we had conversed so pleasantly have had the heart 
to order the poor thing to death ? " 

The detective, Maulah, lived near their hut, and they 

83 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

could hear the shrieks of the flogged and the dying night 
and day. 

One day they asked a page what the king had shot that 
day. 

The reply was : " His Highness could not find any game, 
so he had to shoot down some of his people." 

And yet M'tesa is always spoken of as an enlightened 
native ruler, who kept strict discipline and order. When 
we ask ourselves what right we have to usurp the rule over 
such countries, we must call to mind the cruelties and 
injustices of the old regime. 

At length Speke got leave from M'tesa to leave Uganda 
and travel to Kamrasi, King of Unyoro. After a few days' 
march, as Grant's leg prevented him from fast travelling, 
Speke on the 19th of July again separated from him, going 
east and north to the exit of the Nile from the lake. 

He says : " At last I stood on the brink of the Nile. Most 
beautiful was the scene . . . the kind of effect aimed at in 
a highly kept park : with a magnificent stream from 600 to 
700 yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former 
occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and 
crocodiles basking in the sun, with rich trees and plantains 
in the background, where herds of hartebeest were grazing, 
while the hippopotami were snorting in the water and 
guinea-fowl rising at our feet." All the time they were 
travelling pages kept coming from M'tesa asking for guns 
or stimulants. 

After a long and arduous march Speke came to the falls. 
Ripon Falls he named them, but the natives called them " the 
stones." 

" I saw that old Father Nile without any doubt rises in 
the Victoria Nyanza, and, as I had foretold, that lake is 
the great source of the holy river which cradled the first 
expounder of our religious belief." 

84 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

Speke then started in five boats down the Nile, but had 
to fight his way, for King Kamrasi feared the white men, 
and had not yet made up his mind to receive them. 

Many more days were wasted in sending messages to and 
fro. When the king did explain to Speke's officer his dilatory 
policy, it was in these words — 

" You do not understand the matter. When the white 
men were living in Uganda, many of the people who had 
seen them there came to me and described them as such 
monsters, they ate up mountains and drank the Nyanza 
dry ; and although they fed on beef and mutton, they were 
never satisfied until they got a dish of the tender parts of 
men and women three times a day. Now, I was extremely 
anxious to see men of such wonderful natures, but I refused 
to sacrifice my subjects to their appetites, and for this reason 
I sent to turn them back." 

On the 19th of August Grant managed to rejoin his 
companion, and just when they were on the point of 
returning home by the way they had come, Kamrasi sent 
them an invitation to his palace. 

They found the country gently undulating, with tall 
grass six feet high and trees, but they had to camp on 
a dreary plain hemmed in by marsh and bog. Though 
Kamrasi sent every day to ask after their health, he was 
sending also his " Sherlock Holmes " to spy on the quality 
of their food. 

Kamrasi was fair for an African, slender, tall, and about 
forty years of age ; his eyes had a gentle expression ; his 
lower incisors and eye teeth had been extracted in his 
youth by the dentist's spear, as was the custom ; a bark- 
cloth covering from waist to heels was his only raiment. 
He received his presents "like a cow," one of Speke's 
officers said, showing no eagerness nor delight ; he was 
still very suspicious, but soon began to beg for all he saw. 

85 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

Though Kamrasi was rude and dull, he was not cruel or 
unkind. No one was put to death for a whim or out of 
bravado ; only murderers were flogged or speared. His 
wives lived on milk, and were of enormous size, but slovenly 
and listless, and could not even make butter. Speke had to 
give up his chronometer, worth £50, as the king would 
have it that by this instrument Speke found his way to his 
country. When Speke told him it was worth 500 cows, 
the whole party were convinced that it possessed magical 
powers. However, a box of lucifer matches proved almost 
as attractive to these simple folk. 

The palace of Kamrasi and the lanes leading up to it 
were as filthy as M'tesa's were clean, and stilts and respira- 
tors would have been acceptable. 

Day after day Speke was begging for permission to go 
down the river, but the king was taking English pills and 
required time to think ; also he had not finished yet with 
Speke's picture-books. 

When the Englishmen did go, orders were given that 
no one was to look at them ; for Kamrasi wished to make 
believe to any strangers that visited him that he still had 
the honour of holding the white chiefs. Yet, as they 
dropped down the Kafu in a canoe, they could see that the 
palace side of the river was thronged with spectators. 

If M'tesa had been their king they would have all been 
chopped to little pieces by the terrible reed-knife. 

In a short time they emerged from the smaller river 
into what seemed a lake 1000 yards broad ; but this 
was the Nile, fringed, as before, with the huge papyrus 
rush and lovely convolvuli hanging in festoons. They 
passed myriads of floating islands rolling round and round 
like tubs in the stream ; they were perfect thickets of ferns, 
creepers, and bushes, and when a breeze sprang up would 
lie over like sailing-boats, or felucca-rigged vessels racing, 

86 




Speke and the Hostile Natives 



Speke met with much hostility, and was many times prevented by the natives from carry- 
ing out his darling project, that of navigating the Nile from source to mouth. 



HEROES OF THE NILE 

while the feathery tops of the tall papyrus waved gracefully 
to and fro. 

They landed each evening and slept on shore : the glare 
on the water often gave them sick headaches. At the 
Karuma Falls they stayed three days, waiting for ferry-boats, 
as they now were to go on foot. They passed, and were 
entertained by, a polite and hospitable people, whose only 
clothes were a string of beads and a few brass rings. But 
their manners were exquisite and their houses scented and 
clean. 

When they reached Faloro they found themselves ap- 
proaching European civilisation, for De Bono's ivory traders 
had their camp there, and the land-pirate, Mohammed, was 
being shaved by a black barber. 

" A large, open shed was made over to us," says Grant, 
" but we could not retire to rest without a prayer of thank- 
fulness to the Almighty for having preserved us through 
so many difficulties and dangers." 

The Seedee boys from the East Coast had proved in 
the main very trustworthy. As an example, we may record 
how M'kata, a tall, good-looking lad, one day left a 
cooking-pot twelve miles behind. 

On being scolded he wept, and returned to fetch it, 
coming back with the old pot before the next dawn. He 
had not been asked to do this, but kind treatment had 
put him on his honour. 

They were now travelling with a large escort, and as they 
drew near Gondokoro they saw the spire of the Austrian 
mission-house and the tall, sloping masts of Nile boats. 

They had expected to meet Consul Petherick, but 
rushed into the arms of Baker, the elephant-hunter of 
Ceylon, who took them to his pleasure-boat, and told them 
the news — the death of the Prince Consort, the Civil War 
in America, and many other startling things. 

87 



SPEKE AND GRANT 

So our travellers sailed gaily homewards in Baker's 
boats. The Seedees were lodged in the public gardens at 
Cairo, and on the 1st of June 1863 went off, smiling and 
contented, by train under " Bombay " for Suez, en route for 
Aden and Zanzibar, where each was to be found with a 
pretty wife and a garden of herbs. 

Speke and Grant were warmly welcomed back to Eng- 
land, but a sad tragedy was to follow Speke's home-coming 
into Somersetshire. 

The British Association were to meet at Bath in Sep- 
tember, and Speke was invited to discuss the Nile problem 
before that august body and some others who had questioned 
his results. The day before that meeting Speke went out 
shooting, and was found killed by the accidental discharge 
of his own gun. 

Grant says, " It was hard to believe that one who had 
braved so much had thus fallen, and that his career of 
usefulness was run. I reproached myself for having silently 
borne all the taunts and doubts thrown upon his great 
discovery . . . but we had agreed that controversy on my 
part was to be avoided. Truth in time would conquer 
and bear down all gainsayers, while that grand reservoir, 
the Victoria Nyanza, with its fountains and tributaries, 
would speak for itself. 

" Captain Speke was in private life pure-minded, honour- 
able, and self-denying, with a mind always aiming at great 
things and above every littleness. He has died lamented 
by all who knew him." 

It is strange that in the case of both James Bruce 
and John Hanning Speke their account of their great 
discoveries was at first received with doubt and scepticism. 
It is more easy to criticise from the depths of an arm- 
chair than to go out and learn for yourself at the risk 
of your ease and comfort and security. 

88 



CHAPTER V 

JOSEPH THOMSON 

JOSEPH THOMSON was a striking instance of Scottish 
character proving victorious over its environment, the 
force of circumstances. 

He was born in February 1858 in the village of Pen- 
pont, Dumfriesshire. His father was in his youth a working 
stone-mason, but rose to the position of a master-builder, 
and to become the owner of a valuable quarry. 

Joseph inherited from his father a powerful frame and 
constitution, a good memory and a poetical temperament ; 
from his mother he derived a patient gentleness which served 
him in good stead when face to face with excitable negroes. 

Joseph was the youngest of five sons, and with them he 
learnt to speak the truth, to obey those in authority, and to 
do his duty strenuously. 

The beautiful scenery near his home — the brawling river 
Scar, the dark, sulky pools lying between rocky defiles, the 
fertile vale of the Nith, the breezy uplands and misty hills of 
far Closeburn and Queensberry — all helped to educate the 
lad as much as the daily tasks of the village school. 

He was growing sturdy, bright, frolicsome, venturous, 
and yet meditative. 

When his father took the farm and quarry at Gatelaw- 
bridge, then Joseph began to take an interest in stones and 
fossils and geology generally. 

When he was eleven years old his eldest brother brought 
him from college a volume of travels in strange lands. 

89 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

Mungo Park, Bruce, Moffat, and others fired his imagination, 
and from this time onward Joseph Thomson longed to go 
out and explore. 

It was the time when the nation was feeling anxious 
about the fate of Livingstone. When one day a notice was 
put in the papers announcing an expedition to search for the 
lost traveller, Joseph went to his mother and said, "Oh, 
mother, do get father to let me join it. Too young ? No ; 
even a boy might be useful out there, you know." 

He went away disappointed and sad ; but he read all 
there was in the papers about Stanley's expedition, and one 
day he rushed into the quarry, brandishing the news-sheet 
and flushed with delight. 

" Father ! they've found him — theyVe found him, I'm 
telling you." 

" Found who, my boy ? " said his father in surprise. 

" Why, Livingstone, of course ! Stanley's found him ! " 

Another character-forming element in young Thomson's 
life was the society of Dr. Grierson, a thoughtful lover of 
science, who set the boy upon ranging the hills and glens for 
fossils and rare plants and ferns. On one of these rambles he 
met Professor, now Sir Archibald, Geikie, who afterwards 
lectured to him at Edinburgh and gained for him his first 
post as an African explorer. 

In 1875 Joseph went to Edinburgh University, where he 
took up geology and chemistry as his special subjects, and he 
worked with all his powers. In 1876 he studied botany 
under Professor Balfour and natural history under Huxley, 
who was taking Wyville Thomson's work for a season. 
Huxley he found very difficult to follow, and his language 
too classical. 

"My hours at college are from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. : 
I never get half-an-hour to myself except at the end of the 

week." 

90 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

On Saturdays he and his friends went long walks, ex- 
ploring the country around. He found time to write two 
geological papers on the home rocks : these were printed by 
the Dumfries Society. 

At the end of his last session Thomson came out 
medallist, both in natural history and geology. Sir Archi- 
bald wrote about him thus : " He was always the first to 
climb a crag or scale a quarry, showing in these early days 
the daring and physical endurance which stood him in such 
good stead among the wilds of Africa. . . . There was such 
a frank open -hear tedness about him, such a love of fun and 
so much kindly humour, that he became a great favourite 
among his class-fellows. . . . When Keith- Johnston asked 
me about a geologist to accompany him on his African 
expedition, I had great pleasure in strongly recommending 
Thomson." 

When the news came to the young man of twenty as he 
was disconsolately roaming his native valley, he at first shrank 
from the great responsibility of being called to be geologist 
and naturalist to the Keith-Johnston expedition. However, 
he pulled himself together and took lodgings near Kew 
Gardens, and for two months studied hard at the natural 
history of East Africa. 

Sir Joseph Hooker gave him much useful instruction, so 
did Mr. Bates, the secretary of the Royal Geographical 
Society. 

The work of the expedition was to find a good route 
from the coast to the central lakes, somewhere between Dar- 
es-Salaam and Lake Nyassa. If the stores held out they 
might go on to Lake Tanganyika. 

They started in November 1878, Keith- Johnston looking 
the picture of health and strength ; Joseph Thomson, the 
fair-haired boy student, eager to see the world and read a 
little of its secrets. 

91 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

At Algiers he had a few hours ashore, when he rushed 
into the native quarter and drank in his first draught of 
African experiences. 

At Aden, which they reached on the 12th of December, 
they had to wait a fortnight for the Zanzibar steamer ; but 
Thomson was off to Berbera, 150 miles away on the African 
coast. Two days and a half spent in an open boat full of 
dirty Arabs prepared him for miseries to come. The native 
fair was on, and Thomson saw something of the wild Somalis, 
and took an excursion inland under an escort of cavalry ; of 
all which he made a paper for the Royal Geographical 
Society. 

At the island of Zanzibar the}^ stayed five months, and 
met with great kindness and hospitality from Dr. Kirk, our 
Consul-General. 

In February they made an expedition to the forest region 
of Usambara, on the mainland, and here the young explorer 
was awed and charmed by the natural beauty of gorges rich 
with creeper and flower, of dark primeval forests in which 
the giant trees stood up 200 feet high, and of rocks that 
interested him even more than the vegetation. 

It was not until May that they bade adieu to the 
courteous Sultan and sailed for Dar-es-Salaam, a little south 
of Zanzibar. 

Their caravan numbered 150 men, led by the faithful 
Chuma, of Livingstone fame ; about eighty men carried guns, 
and they started in high spirits and with good hope of success. 

For the first month they trudged through swamp and 
morass, for the rains were continuing three weeks beyond 
their usual time ; and in this malarial atmosphere Keith- 
Johnston fell a victim to dysentery and died. 

The eager boy of twenty was suddenly called to command 
the expedition : now it would be proved whether the Scot 
was worthy of his forebears or not. 

92 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

Thomson was just then weak in limb from fever, but he 
set about his work manfully. First he gave his chief reverent 
burial, and then ordered the men to fall in for the march — 
and such a march ! One continuous floundering through bog 
and marsh, succeeded by a hot sandy plain on which only a 
few stunted shrubs could live and flourish. 

Thomson thought himself lucky to have secured the 
services of a smart Zanzibari boy, who attended on him most 
eagerly ; but when he discovered that his treasure was in the 
habit of cleaning the plates on his loin-cloth and wiping the 
forks with his fingers, half the glamour was gone. 

As they " trailed their slow length along," the subdued 
cry, " Mahenge ! " arose from the scared porters ; they 
dropped their loads and prepared to run from the dreaded 
savages. 

But Thomson, all unarmed, stepped out to meet the 
naked, painted warriors. He smiled and greeted them as 
friends ; and the Mahenge, surprised at his daring and 
pleased by his genuine good humour, forgot to loot or 
stab the strangers. 

It was in this way that Thomson won his way from 
tribe to tribe. He was anxious only to prove to the natives 
that his mission was peace, and that the word of the white 
man could be trusted. 

As they traversed the desolate moorland of Ubena, 5000 
feet high, Thomson was suffering from rheumatic fever, and 
had to be supported by two natives. The higher they went 
the more miserable and degraded were the negroes, and the 
colder were the wet nights that soaked the party through 
and through. At last they staggered down 4000 feet to 
Lake Nyassa, worn out by fatigue and sickness ; yet after 
a few days' rest they went on to Lake Tanganyika, which 
they reached at its most southern point. Here he put 
together and launched his collapsible boat, the Agnes, 

93 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

named after his mother ; and here, while he was bathing, 
a hungry crocodile snapped its jaws within an inch of 
his leg. 

Soon he again set out to explore the western side of 
this lake, leaving most of his men under Chuma on the 
southern shore. 

As he travelled into the country of Warungu, all his 
presence of mind and nerve were perpetually on the strain, 
for the natives here were full of suspicion and resentment. 
Nor was it to be wondered at, for their experience of 
strangers was confined to Arab slave -hunters, men who 
came to burn happy villages and steal their women and 
children. 

More than once Thomson stood and smiled at one of 
these savages, who stood before him with uplifted axe, or 
arrow drawn to the head. They could not make him out — 
was he more than man ? He smiled as if he knew they had 
no power to strike him, and so they never struck the blow. 

Seven thousand feet up through the very home of 
storms ! the lightning almost blinding them, the thunder 
rolling heavily from peak to peak, while mountain torrents, 
in such angry spate as he had never seen at home, roared 
down the pass, and answered the thunder-crash with a 
continued undertone of murmurous sound. 

At last he stood by the outlet of the Lukuga River, 
and found a swift, resistless stream instead of the lazy, 
mud-choked river which Cameron had described. For it 
had swept away its dam of mud and made for itself so deep 
a channel that its rapid outflow had lowered the level of 
the Tanganyika as much as eight or ten feet. 

After a short rest Thomson took a slave-trader's boat 
and recrossed to Ujiji, on the eastern side of the lake, 
where he was literally washed ashore by a midnight storm, 
but found hospitality with the agent of the London 

94 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

Missionary Society. Having supplied himself with fresh 
stores, Thomson went west again in the hope to strike 
the Congo. 

But the Warua tribe would not receive him on any 
terms, and his thirty men threatened to mutiny if he 
advanced further, so he turned back, paddled 200 miles 
in a canoe very pleasantly along the romantic creeks 
and headlands of the lake, and rejoined his men at their 
camp, who had almost given him up for dead. It was a 
treat to find better food than beans and Indian corn, and 
a softer bed than bare planks to sleep on. 

When they reached Unyanyambe, and the news of his 
rapid dash to the west reached the ears of the Arab traders, 
Thomson was visited and lionised by all, from the governor 
downwards. 

When they reached Zanzibar after their little tramp 
of 30,000 miles, the Sultan sent to congratulate Thomson 
and to reward his men with a gift of money. 

Dumfries and Thornhill welcomed their distinguished 
countryman home with flying banners and sounds of music, 
and nothing was so well liked in him as his declaration that 
he had found a gentle word more potent than gunpowder. 

In November Thomson showed his spoil of rock and 
flower and shell to the Royal Geographical Society, and 
gave an address of immense interest, which ended in his 
having to write a book, To the Central African Lakes 
and Back. 

His next expedition was to explore the river Rovuma 
for coal, by request of the Sultan of Zanzibar. There was 
no coal, and Thomson was not believed when he brought 
back the disappointing report. 

For two months he was kept a prisoner on parole, and 
then made his way back to Scotland, when he found time to 
study Darwin. 

95 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

At the meeting of the British Association in South- 
ampton Thomson read a paper on the geological evolution 
of Lake Tanganyika. 

Thomson's next task was to explore the country lying 
between Mombasa and Victoria Nyanza ; the difficulty was 
not owing to the physical features of the country, but in 
the fierce character of the inhabitants. Gordon had wished 
to open out such a route, and the Church Missionary Society 
were anxious for its accomplishment. 

Thomson was asked to lead a caravan thither; it jumped 
with his humour, and he set off in December 1882, spent 
ten days in Cairo, and reached Zanzibar on the 26th of 
January. 

As luck would have it, several important caravans had 
just started, and only the riff-raff and ruck of oriental 
rascaldom was left for Thomson. One man who had been 
a ringleader in mischief on Thomson's former expedition, 
and yet Was a magnificent worker, Thomson dared to 
appoint as one of his head overseers. 

The experiment succeeded : the man became loyal to 
his leader, and served him faithfully throughout. 

On the 15th of March the journey was begun from 
Mombasa through 200 miles of desert, waterless and 
uninhabited. A fortnight of toil and agony brought 
them to a delightful oasis, Taveta, shaded by palm and 
bush and creeper, cooled by the icy streams that murmured 
through banana groves as they bickered along the slopes 
that formed the base of a majestic king of volcanic moun- 
tains, Kilimanjaro, 19,000 feet high, capped with eternal 
snow. Here the natives were friendly and hospitable, and 
the caravan rested two weeks and enjoyed themselves ; but 
they had heard dreadful tales of the cruelty of the Masai 
warriors and were fain to desert, if they could do so safely. 
Unfortunately the route they chose had been recently taken 

96 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

by Dr. Fischer, who had fought his way through and left 
such smouldering sparks of revenge that Thomson saw it 
would be fatal to go on ; so, under the cover of night, they 
returned to Taveta. 

Then with ten men Thomson made a dash for the coast, 
and engaged a caravan of sixty-eight men. On his return to 
Taveta he found a large trading caravan about to start for 
Masailand, and arranged with the leader that they should 
join forces. 

This time they went by the east and north sides of the 
great mountain, passing through a lovely and fertile country, 
in which no man dared to live through fear of the Masai. 
The only dangers they came across were caused by mad 
charges of rhinoceros or bull buffalo, while lions now and 
then took off a donkey at night. 

When they came near Mount Erok they had to erect a 
fence of thorns every night against marauding Masai, those 
brown fiends with sloping eyes and majestic figures ; they 
are bachelor warriors till thirty, when they marry and settle 
down to domestic life and the keeping of cattle. They were 
cattle-lifters, who thought all other tribes beneath them, and 
scrupled not to kill and plunder at sight. 

Thomson found time to explore the high plateau, and 
discovered that all was of volcanic origin, with cones and 
craters of great height. 

Hearing that Dr. Fischer had turned back in despair, 
the young Scot resolved to push on to Mount Kenia, eighty 
miles distant, with only thirty men to help him. But as 
he progressed he discovered that a pest was decimating the 
cattle, and that the natives were blaming the stranger for it. 
Then Thomson seized upon the idea of posing as a medicine- 
man, and made spells for the healing of their cattle. 

This was a very hazardous experiment, but fortunately 
his great master-spell of pulling out two false teeth and 

97 g 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

replacing them at will won for him a vast belief in his powers 
of healing. On his way he saw a magnificent range of 
mountains some 14,000 feet high, which he named the 
Aberdare range. 

Mount Kenia he admired, but could not ascend, for he 
had already been too long away from his camp. 

They reached their men when they had made up their 
minds to give him up as lost. Thomson and his thirty had 
fed all the month on the flesh of diseased cattle, but after a 
few days 1 rest they were well enough to start for the Victoria 
Nyanza. 

No caravan had as yet succeeded in getting through by 
this route, but Thomson selected a hundred fit men and set 
off on the 16th of November over mountains 7000 feet high. 
By the 28th he had arrived at Kabaras, rich and populous, 
with hundreds of beehive huts and a strong encircling wall. 

Thomson's good fame as a gentle, kindly stranger had 
gone before him, and the natives were ready to act in a 
friendly manner. By the 10th of December they reached 
the reedy shores of the Nyanza, in which Thomson bathed. 
He was now only forty-five miles from the Nile, but an 
attack of fever just then came on, and a message also from a 
friendly chief, intimating that the King of Uganda objected 
to the white man entering his country " by a back door," 
induced him to return. After making careful observations 
as to the lie of the shores to the north-east, he retraced his 
steps by Mount Elgon, and discovered some enormous caves 
of great antiquity cut out of the hard rock. 

Thomson was not, like most of his predecessors in ex- 
ploration, a huntsman by nature and instinct. One day, as he 
was seeking food for his men, he shot a bull buffalo, and 
walked up to it ; when, to his surprise, the victim of his 
rifle came at him with head erect, as its habit is, and tossed 
him into the air before he could escape or fire a second shot. 

98 




JvbsfTTGnpbell 



Thomson's Narrow Escape 

Thomson having shot a buffalo thought it was killed, when suddenly it rose, 
charged, and tossed him into the air. 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

When he recovered from his shock he saw the monster 
standing over him and about to complete its deadly work, 
but at the same moment the sound of shots came to his ear, 
and the buffalo with a low roar turned away and left him 
free to drag himself from his terrible position. 

Thomson was badly gored and lost much blood, but that 
evening he had recovered sufficiently to drink in grim merri- 
ment to the memory of the buffalo in soup that had been 
made of part of its body. 

For the next three weeks he was borne on a stretcher, 
but as soon as was possible he was off on an expedition to 
explore the country north of Lake Baringo. After this, 
either the dead buffalo was exercising a baleful influence on 
his health, or the trials of his long marches were beginning 
to have their effect, for dysentery seized him, and he had to 
remain two months in a dark and lonely hut, with swarms of 
cruel Masai prowling around him. 

At last his cry, " Carry me to the coast," was heard and 
obeyed ; and as the men in their devotion to their leader 
bore him along week after week, singing to cheer him, hope 
revived in the stricken man, heart-beats became stronger, 
and by June Thomson felt strong enough to walk. 

When he reached home the Scottish Geographical Society 
was just inaugurated in December 1884, and H. M. Stanley 
lectured before it, dwelling mainly on the commercial pros- 
pects of the Congo. 

At the banquet which followed the address, Thomson 
could not help relieving his soul of a protest against the 
commercial spirit. " There were days," he said, " when 
there was romance in African travel, but the soulless march 
of commerce has been gradually trampling out that. . . . 
We have come to look upon the palm-tree, not in regard 
to its artistic effect, but upon the quantity of oil that it is to 
produce ... it is pitiful that such should be the case." 

99 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

Thomson gave no optimistic advice to the mere trader ; 
he had found the wants of the Masai simple, and, as he 
expressed it, " You cannot trade in that region unless the 
Masai allow you, but at present they would rather have your 
head than the present of a linen-draper's warehouse." 

The next journey Thomson was to take was to the 
Hinterland of the Niger ; for the British Government wished 
him to conclude commercial treaties with the kings of 
Sokoto and Gandu. As he landed from time to time on the 
West Coast of Africa he could not help being profoundly 
disappointed at the influence of civilisation, so-called, upon 
the natives. The Kru boys, the most docile and intelligent 
on the coast, had learned nothing from the traders but to 
desire gin, tobacco, and gunpowder. When he passed 
through a native village, squalid figures in rags came begging 
round him, lost to all sense of dignity and independence. 

As he sailed up the Niger and got into the influence 
of Islam, the people seemed ;more worthy, and, though 
superstitious, yet full of religious feeling, and he laid the 
blame for the worse state of things at the coast on the 
bad examples set by Christian traders. 

Thomson's voyage was successful, and the treaties were 
signed and sealed. In Septemher 1885 he was home again, 
fighting against fever and dysentery, reading many papers, 
and receiving gold medals. 

Of Thomson's travels over the Atlas Mountains and in 
Northern Zambezia we have not room to write more than to 
say that sickness attacked him and his porters in the latter 
expedition, and the natives, accustomed to the raids of slave- 
traders, would give no help. 

However, he reached home once more, and had time 
to write the story of his travels ; but in 1893 pneumonia 
attacked him, and another journey to Africa seemed the only 
cure for his lungs. 

100 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

In Africa he met Olive Schreiner, and Cecil Rhodes 
offered to lend him his De Beers house at Kimberley. He 
went to live there, and his lung began to heal in the 
hot, dry air, but other bodily ailments troubled him. 
Rhodes spoke of a mission for him into Matabeleland, 
but Thomson was not strong enough for the effort, and 
returned to England. 

In July 1894 he wrote to Edward Clodd : "I am in 
a very bad way. Since I came to Scotland I have been 
nearly completely prostrate ... in three weeks I have 
lost twelve of my precious pounds of flesh. ... I cannot 
even read." 

However, he struggled as far as Naples, and Capri, and 
Palermo ; then home by the Riviera, and to Cromer, and 
back to London. 

Only the day before he died he said, " If I could put 
on my clothes and walk a hundred yards, I would go to 
South Africa yet." 

And when his eldest brother warned him of approaching 
death he said, " I have been face to face with death for 
years and need not be alarmed at it now ... we must 
all cast ourselves upon the mercy of God." 

Thus, at the age of thirty-seven, this strong, brave 
man passed away, worn out by his strenuous efforts in the 
cause of science. He had been a born leader of men, 
managing savages with tact and gentleness and boyish 
merriment, so that they felt at once a strange sympathy 
with this white man. 

The story of Livingstone had first awakened in Thomson 
the spirit of adventure and a desire to explore Africa; but 
when he had been there and seen the pity of it, the suffer- 
ings of the enslaved and the oppressed, the desire to help 
the sons of Africa became a holy passion which he could 
not resist. 

101 



JOSEPH THOMSON 

Sir Clements R. Markham wrote of him that he had 
the high and glorious distinction of never having caused 
the death of a single native. 

Thomson was sometimes chaffed by his friends for 
having taken a bottle of brandy with him into Central 
Africa and for having brought it back still uncorked. 

Mr. J. M. Barrie wrote : " It is reasonable to presume 
that his straightforwardness and his boyish, high spirits 
were responsible for much of his popularity with the natives. 
Whatever their faults, they, too, were straightforward and 
gleeful, and so he had something in common with them. 
... I am sure he delighted in exchanging views with 
their ladies, and enjoyed dancing with the native belles, 
and was as courteous to them as though they were the 
beauties of May fair. " 

Mr. Ravenstein wrote : " Each of the six African 
expeditions on which Thomson was engaged yielded geo- 
graphical results of interest ... far greater results were 
achieved by a short visit to Morocco in 1888, when he 
crossed the high Atlas range thrice and ascended several 
virgin peaks." 

Before Thomson's journeys very little was known of 
the geology of the Hinterland of East Africa. Thomson 
constructed a definite geological section across the country 
from Tanganyika to the coast. He showed that all that 
area was a vast plateau of gneiss, schist, and granite, 
separated from the coast by a broad belt of coal-bearing 
rocks. In Western Morocco he made valuable observations 
on the former glaciation of the Atlas. As Thomson had 
been educated in a glaciated country, his judgment on this 
question is not to be despised. 

Mr. J. A. Grant, who served under Thomson in his 
last expedition, speaks of his indomitable perseverance : 
" Struck down by an acutely painful internal disease, 

102 



GEOLOGIST AND NATURALIST 

Thomson never for one moment resigned the work he had 
undertaken ; he struggled on gamely day after day, refusing 
to be carried until he was worn to a shadow, and had at 
length to submit to a rough-and-ready hammock ; he was 
a prince among pioneers, for those who followed him were 
looked upon as friends, not enemies." 

Mr. Scott-Elliott writes with reference to Thomson's 
botanical work : " He managed, when exposed to the extra- 
ordinary perils of Masailand, to carry a large collection 
safely home . . . when many of his own private comforts 
had to be abandoned. ... It would be a great benefit to 
science if there were more men of his stamp able to follow 
the example which he set." 1 

1 From the Biography of Joseph Thomson by his brother, by the kind 
consent of the family and of the publishers, Messrs. S. Low, Marston & Co. 



103 



CHAPTER VI 

STANLEY AND EMIN 

ISMAIL, the Khedive, had undertaken to build up an 
enormous Egyptian Empire stretching from Alexandria 
to Lake Albert. For the reports brought home by 
Speke and Grant and Baker of wondrous lakes and rivers 
and fertile uplands had over-excited the Khedive's ambition, 
and he ventured to do out of his poverty what only a wealthy 
prince could hope to carry through with success. 

It is true Sir Samuel Baker conquered for him the 
Equatorial Province, but no military stations had been 
formed connecting the south with Egypt. Ismail's debts 
at length frightened European bankers, and in 1879 he was 
deposed, and Tewfik, his son, reigned in his stead. 

Then came a military revolt under Arabi Pasha, and 
troops had to be withdrawn from the Sudan. This gave 
the new Mahdi an opportunity to prove his power. Lord 
Wolseley broke the forces of Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, but 
ever new defeats of Egyptian armies under such generals 
as Hicks Pasha and Valentine Baker in 1884 increased the 
popular faith in the Prophet. 

From 1874 to 1876 General Gordon had been attempt- 
ing in the Upper Sudan to crush out slavery and strengthen 
the Khedive's authority. 

Amongst other men whom Gordon trusted and em- 
ployed was a Prussian Jew named Edward Schnitzler, 
who had served in the suite of the Turkish Governor- 
General of Scutari, and at his death had come to Khartoum, 

104 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

assumed the name and title of Emin Effendi Hakim, and 
had been taken on by Gordon as a medical attendant. 

Gordon found Emin industrious and obliging, more 
fond of his scientific pursuits than of climbing to wealth 
or power ; he was also humble and obedient, and would 
do whatever Gordon bade him. So he was sent to Lado 
as storekeeper and doctor, then singled out by Gordon to 
go on a political mission to King M'tesa, and again on a 
similar mission to King Kabba-Rega of Unyoro ; at last, in 
1878, he was promoted to Bey, and made Governor of the 
Equatorial Province, with £50 a month for salary. 

Emin ruled gently and peaceably ; but the Mahdi grew 
stronger, and Emm's first battalion grew discontented. Then 
came the news in 1885 that Khartoum had fallen and Gordon 
was slain. Emin's solitary figure, the last of Gordon's lieu- 
tenants, left alone in the heart of Africa to maintain the 
honour of England and Egypt, struck a note of sympathy 
that thrilled through Great Britain ; more than i?20,000 
were subscribed for a relief expedition, and H. M. Stanley 
was invited to take charge of it. 

After long consultations it was resolved to travel up the 
Congo, a route which Stanley knew. Though he was then 
lecturing in America, the explorer telegraphed to Sir W. 
Mackinnon : " Just received Monday's cable ; many thanks ; 
everything all right ; will sail per Eider 8 a.m. Wednesday. 1 ' 

Arrived in England, Stanley had to select his officers — 
Lieutenant W. Grant Stairs, R.E. ; W. Bonney as medical 
assistant ; Mr. J. R. Troup, who had served before on the 
Congo ; Major Barttelot of the 7th Fusiliers ; Captain 
Nelson of Methuen's Horse ; Mr. J. M. Jephson, and 
J. S. Jameson. 

The committee had been in favour of reaching Emin 
through Masailand, but Stanley held that by the Eastern 
route food and water would be scanty, desertions would be 

105 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

numerous, and the natives warlike. As King Leopold was 
in favour of the Congo route, and promised his help, this 
route was determined on, and Stanley started for Alex- 
andria, where he engaged Surgeon Parke, A.M.D., as 
surgeon to the expedition. 

At Cairo, Sir Evelyn Baring met Stanley and gave him 
good advice, and introduced him to Nubar Pasha. Stanley 
soon convinced Nubar that the Congo was the best route, 
and got permission to use the Egyptian flag. 

The Khedive gave Stanley a firman, or high order, to 
carry with him, in which Emin was thanked for his brave 
defence, promoted to Brigadier-General, notified that Mr. 
Stanley, the famous explorer, was being sent with supplies 
and arms for his relief, and allowed to choose his own 
course, either to stay in his province or leave it for Cairo ; 
but he was not to expect further assistance from England 
or Egypt. 

By February 1887 Stanley arrived at Zanzibar and pre- 
sented the Sultan with a letter from Sir W. Mackinnon, in 
which he explained that Stanley had chosen the Congo 
route that he might be able to convey his Zanzibari men 
without fatigue or risk by sea, and up the river in boats, so 
that they would arrive within 350 miles of their destination 
fresh and vigorous instead of being worn out and jaded by 
the fatigue of a long inland march. 

Then Stanley sent a letter by couriers overland to Emin, 
explaining why he was coming. He told him he was bringing 
sixty soldiers from Wady Haifa, 600 Zanzibari natives, and 
as many Arab followers from Central Africa, plenty of 
ammunition and letters and equipments for himself and 
his officers. 

Stanley also had interviews with Tippu-Tib, of negro 
origin, and now the virtual king of all the region between 
Stanley Falls on the Congo and Tanganyika lake. This 

106 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

man had escorted Stanley's caravan in 1877 down the 
Congo, and since then had grown considerably in power. 

Stanley engaged to carry Tippu and his ninety-six men 
round by the Cape to the Congo, when the latter would 
provide 600 carriers to bring back Emin's ivory from Lake 
Albert to Stanley Falls. Tippu was to be made Governor 
of Stanley Falls with a monthly salary, and he was to stop 
all slave-trading. 

Tippu was not averse to slave-trading himself, but he 
must either be a friend or an enemy, and his friendship was 
worth buying. 

He was rather astonished at all he saw at Cape Town, and 
declared that white men seemed even more enterprising than 
Arabs. 

On the 18th of March 1887 the Madura dropped her 
anchor at the mouth of the Congo. The officers, soldiers, 
porters, &c., were transhipped, after a march to Stanley 
Pool, into river steamers, old and rusty. Already fifty-seven 
men had deserted, although they were 3000 miles from their 
native land ; thirty-eight rifles were missing, and half their 
axes, shovels, spears, &c. 

The scenery was varied and beautiful, but the four steamers 
were even more varied in their pace and manner of breakdown. 

They reached Bangala Station on the Upper Congo by 
the end of May. Here there was a garrison of sixty men 
with two Krupps, plenty of food, crops of rice growing, and 
a large brick factory. 

A little higher up an interesting incident happened. 

Stanley had a young native named Baruti as his ser- 
vant. The boy had been captured when a child in 1883, and 
had been taken to England by Sir Francis de Winton. 
From Sir Francis the boy had passed on to the charge of 
Stanley, who now noticed that the boy was looking intently 
across the water towards one of the Basoka villages. 

107 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

"Well, Baruti, what do you see there that interests 
you so ? " 

" Oh ! master, we are passing the village where I 
was born." 

Some men in canoes were a little way off ; they were, like 
all forest people, very suspicious of strangers, and feared to 
come near enough to barter or sell their produce. 

" Hail those fellows, Baruti," said Stanley. 

Baruti hailed them in their own tongue. They came a 
little nearer, and the boy named his eldest brother and asked 
where he was. At once the wild men hallooed the name 
lustily across the river. The steamer had stopped ; all were 
listening and looking intently. They soon saw a tall young 
man enter a canoe and paddle near. 

Baruti asked how he was — "did he remember little 
Baruti ? " A doubtful grunt and a shake of the head was 
the reply. The boy named his parents, and the man in 
the canoe smiled and came close up to the steamer, stared 
hard, and again shook his head. 

" If you are my brother Baruti, tell me something that 
I may know you." 

"Thou hast a scar on thy arm — on the right; mind'st 
thou the crocodile ? " 

" Ha ! ha ! " With a great shout of joy the big native 
roared out the news to the villagers, and Baruti sat down 
and sobbed. 

The big brother forgot all his fears, leapt into the 
steamer, hugged his long-lost brother, and there was great 
rejoicing. 

In the evening Stanley offered Baruti his liberty, if he 
wished to return to his kinsfolk. The boy declared he would 
rather stay with his master, but a few days after he disap- 
peared ; the spell of home had proved too compelling. 

At Yambuya they began their long tramp across the 
108 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

forest, leaving Major Barttelot and Jameson to bring up 
the rear later on. They started on the 28th of June, and 
were marching through forest, bush, and jungle till the 5th 
of December. The temperature was 86° in the shade. 
Fifty men plied bill-hooks and axes ; creepers had to be 
slashed away, the tangle of undergrowth had to be made 
passable, huge fallen trees had to be negotiated by the 
mules and donkeys. 

Soon they came to a broad road leading to a village, at 
the end of which stood three hundred natives of Yankonda, 
excitedly talking and yelling ; in their hands they carried 
drawn bows. It was a trap ! 

The pleasant road was strewn with sharp skewers covered 
lightly with leaves, that would have lamed the explorers 
Stanley ordered the skewers to be torn out of the ground 
before they advanced on the village. Fortunately their 
poisoned arrows fell short, and the village was occupied 
for the night and sentries were posted. 

In following days they found all the approaches to 
villages defended by these sharp and poisoned skewers, so 
deadly to men walking with bare feet. 

On July the 3rd the forest grew suddenly dark, and a dis- 
tant murmur sounded as the tree-tops swayed and rustled in 
the rising wind. They tried to pitch tents, but the storm blew 
everything about ; the big raindrops felt cold on the bare 
shoulders of the Sudanese, and they shivered. No fires 
could be lit until three in the morning, when bonfires 
cheered the hungry people, and they roasted the bitter 
manioc and sang songs. Next day they came upon a calm 
reach of river — the Aruwimi — and the steel boat, which was 
being carried in forty-four sections, was put together and 
launched. It was much easier than marching, for now 
ninety-eight were relieved of their loads and marched 
lightly near the river. It was observed that the natives 

109 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

in their canoes used the river chiefly as a means of com- 
munication. 

By the 9th many men had bad wounds in the feet, 
ulcers and fever, and all were looking jaded and worn. 
In the deserted villages they found long heaps of oyster- 
shells, which made their mouths water. 

Sometimes the marching column had to cross twenty 
streams in a day, and Jephson astonished all by his vigour, 
dashing through close jungle, or standing up to his neck 
in a muddy creek. Stairs had been ill for some time, and 
had to be carried till he could be put on the boat. 

On the 25th they came to rapids which extended for 
two miles. It was hard work struggling up stream, grasping 
at bushes, poling, meeting colonies of spiteful wasps from 
which the naked Zanzibaris fled howling. 

In August they reached Panga Falls, some thirty feet 
high and a mile in length. Food was scarce, and the natives 
demanded exorbitant prices (in rods). Now and then a 
canoe was overturned and rifles were lost. 

On August 13th Stairs was wounded by an arrow in 
the left breast. Dr. Parkes washed the wound in water, 
but the Zanzibaris swore the arrow was poisoned by a 
solution of arum. For many days Stairs seemed unlikely to 
recover. Another man, similarly wounded, was attacked 
by lockjaw and was treated with morphine ; but he died 
in agonies, while Lieutenant Stairs gradually grew better. 
The only food now was plantains, Indian corn, and a few 
fowls on which the men used to waste many cartridges. 

On September 16th Stanley visited an Arab station and 
was hospitably received in a fort of baked clay ; here he 
saw the first specimen of the tribe of dwarfs. The young 
lady of seventeen was thirty-three inches in height, per- 
fectly formed, coloured like a quadroon, graceful and 
pretty, having large eyes, lustrous and gazelle-like ; though 

110 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

absolutely nude, she seemed quite modest and self-possessed. 
Ugarrowa, the chief of the station, had been a tent-boy 
under Speke and Grant, and was now lord of many men 
and stations. 

As Stanley was encamping after his first day's passage 
up the river after leaving Ugarrowa's station, he was 
surprised to see a canoe approaching with three of his 
Zanzibaris bound as prisoners. They had deserted with 
rifles and cartridges, and were being sent back by their 
late host. Desertions were becoming so common that 
Stanley next morning mustered all hands and addressed 
them on the subject. It was agreed that the men 
deserved to be hanged, one each day, and that this penalty 
should be in store for any other deserters. The lots were 
thrown and one man was hanged from a tree. On the 
second morning Stanley called the head chief, Rashid, and 
said, "What are we to do about hanging the second 
deserter ? " 

Rashid was for carrying out the sentence : " On their 
own heads let the guilt lie. . . . They all know that you, a 
Christian, are suffering all this hardship to save the sons 
of Islam who are in trouble near some great sea beyond 
here. They profess Islam, and yet would leave the Christian 
in the bush. Let them die ! " 

But Stanley wished to try mercy and forgiveness, so -he 
arranged with Rashid that when the noose was ready he 
should come to his leader and ask pardon. In half-an-hour 
the men were mustered in a square enclosing the prisoner. 
The long cable hung over a bough and the noose was 
adjusted, when Stanley turned to Rashid, " Have you any- 
thing to say before he dies ? " Then Rashid and his 
brother chiefs rushed up and fell at Stanley's feet, blamed 
the deserter and thief, but pleaded for mercy. 

The whole company of the Zanzibaris stood silent, 
111 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

electrified by the same emotion. Stanley glanced at the 
dilated eyes and parted lips and cried, " Enough, children ! 
take your man — his life is yours. But see to it ! There is 
only one law in future for him who robs us of a rifle, and 
that is death by the eord." 

Then caps and turbans were tossed into the air, eyes 
shone with tears, and they shouted as they raised their right 
hands — 

" Until the white cap is buried none shall leave him ! 
Death to him who leaves Bula Matari ! Lead on now to the 
Nyanza." 

The prisoner also wept and knelt down, vowing to die 
for Stanley, who shook hands with the released prisoner, 
saying, " It is God's work ; thank Him." 

By the 6th of October only 263 men were left, of whom 
fifty-two had been reduced to skeletons, having ulcers and being 
unable to forage. Captain Nelson also was among the sick, and 
could not march. So Nelson and the sick with eighty-one 
loads and ten canoes were left behind, and the rest marched 
on to seek relief for them. It was terrible for both parties : 
the one camped on a sandy terrace, hemmed in by frowning 
rocks and dark woods ; the other party tramping on with 
empty stomachs stayed only on fungi and a few bananas. 
As they sat in the evening, one asked Stanley if in all his 
travels he had ever felt such hunger as this. 

Stanley tried to cheer the men up, spoke of Elijah fed 
by ravens, and said, " Christ was ministered unto by angels. 
I wonder if any one will minister unto us ? " 

At that moment there came a sound as of a large bird 
whirring through the air. Randy, Stanley's fox-terrier, 
cocked his ear and lifted one fore-foot ; then dashed for- 
ward and snapped the prize — a fine, fat guinea-fowl ! 

" The age of miracles is not past," said Stanley merrily. 
The bird was promptly cooked and divided, and Randy had 

112 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

his fair portion, and seemed quite aware that he was the 
hero of the evening. After this they managed to subsist on 
forest-beans, grubs and slugs, caterpillars, and white ants. 
They wondered if Emin Pasha would ever realise what they 
were suffering for his sake. 

By the 15th of October they were all so desperately 
weak that Stanley again put the case before his men. He 
told them that only 200 now remained, of whom 150 alone 
were fit to carry anything. " Let us sink our boat here by 
the riverside, and press on to get food for ourselves and 
those with Captain Nelson." To this the ever-faithful 
Uledi replied, " Sir, my advice is this : you go on with the 
caravan and search for our friends, the Manyuema, and I 
with my crew will work at these rapids. 11 So they separated, 
and Stanley led northward through the trackless forest, and 
at 3.30, after a terrible struggle through a wilderness of 
arums, amoma, and bush, they came upon a dark glen in 
which was a deserted camp with two bushels of Indian corn 
and a bushel of beans. 

Stanley's Zanzibar donkey proclaimed sadly he could 
no further go, for arums had been his spare diet since 
June 28th ; so, to end his misery, his master shot him. 
The meat was shared as though it were the finest venison : 
skin, bones, hoofs — all devoured hungrily as if by a pack 
of hyenas. 

On the 16th, as they tore their way despairingly through 
wood, stream, and jungle, they came suddenly upon a road, 
and saw on the trees the peculiar " blaze," or hatchet-mark, 
of the Manyuema. A cheer went up from one end of the 
column to the other, though only fifty were now in fair 
condition. Poor Randy was following with feeble steps, 
for parched corn had not done him much good. 

On the afternoon of the 17th a storm of rain fell, but 
hope made them start early on the 18th. As, in the fog, 

113 h 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

they stopped to discuss their bearings, they heard a lusty 
voice singing in an unknown tongue. 

Stanley fired his Winchester in the air, and heavy-loaded 
muskets replied. " It must be the Manyuema," they shouted, 
and ran down the slope. 

It was Kilonga-Longa's station, and there stood many 
Arabs waving their welcome and offering hospitality. With 
grateful hearts they were led to the huts assigned them 
by the lusty ivory-hunters. 

It was something to have their lives saved and to be 
fed, but their hosts lived by raiding the natives, and they 
tried to rob Stanley's men of their rifles. When things 
were looking dark and the Manyuema were getting angry, 
Uledi strode into camp, saying that the boat was safe and 
the six missing chiefs were found. He soon made peace with 
the Arabs, and they apologised to Stanley for the thefts, 
agreed to send thirty men to the relief of Nelson and his 
party, and to provide Stanley with a guide. So, on they 
went through the forest, seeing deserted villages of the 
pigmies, and suffering from the insolence of the Manyuema 
guides. 

On November 29th they saw from a hill the welcome 
sight of pasture-land ! " The forest-hell," as the men had 
called it, at last came to an end. On December 4th they 
emerged from the dark forest with rapture and shouts of joy 
into a rolling plain 3000 feet above the ocean, where the 
glorious sunshine and pure mountain air made them feel 
young again. In passing through the land of the Wazam- 
boni, Stanley had to enforce peace by rifle fire, for the young 
warriors of the hill-side clamoured for war. The poor 
natives, armed with bows and spear, soon discovered their 
error and fled. When on December 13th they gained the 
brow of the last hill and saw only a high tableland before 
them, the Zanzibaris grumbled. 

114 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

" Mashallah ! but this Nyanza keeps going further away 
from us.' 1 

" Keep your eyes open, boys," cried Stanley cheerily ; 
"you may see the Nyanza any minute now." But the 
blacks grunted their disbelief. Down they went into a 
great valley, and saw deep down below them a grey mist. 
What was it ? The Albert Nyanza sleeping in the haze ! 
They could not believe their eyes at first, but when they 
realised that the goal of their wanderings lay before them 
they burst into cheers and enthusiastic shouts. 

Meanwhile Stanley was scrutinising the shores of the 
lake, twenty miles of rugged slopes and ravines fringed with 
bush and destitute of trees. Beyond lay the high tableland 
of Unyoro, level to the eye. 

As they descended the slope many natives hung on to 
the rear, shooting their arrows and taunting the new-comers : 
" Ha ! where will you sleep to-night ? " They were three 
hours descending, with halts to repel the natives, and set a 
chain of sentries round the camp, which rather surprised the 
enemy. Next day, the 14th December, they went along the 
shore and tried to get some news of Emin from the villagers. 
But the natives only knew of one white man, who came from 
the north in a smoke-boat many years ago (Mason Bey). A 
chill smote Stanley to the heart. He had written to Emin 
from Zanzibar to say that by the loth he might be on this 
lake. It was now the 14th : why were not his steamers to 
be seen ? 

A more heartless outlook had never confronted an 
explorer in wild Africa. Almost a year had passed since 
they left England ; what awful dangers and pains they 
had dared in order to rescue this lonely, deserted man, 
and he had not taken the trouble to steam from end to 
end of the lake — a mere two days' trip. In fact Emin 
Pasha was not known to the people ! When Stanley's 

115 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

officers realised the situation — the disappointment, the 
fear of starvation, the necessity of retreat, the absence of 
boat or canoe — they were dumb with grief and regret. 
However, on the 16th they resolved to go back to Ibwiri, 
eighteen days 1 journey, and there build a fort. Fortune 
favoured them as they retreated, for they found both game 
and stores of grain, and cattle for beef. 

By the 22nd they had forded the East Ituri River, but 
Stairs and Stanley were prostrated by ague and footsores. 
On the 6th of January 1888 they came to the spot where 
they had resolved to build Fort Bodo, the Peaceful Fort. 
When the fort was finished Stairs was sent to Ipoto to find 
out what had become of Nelson, Dr. Parke, and the sick 
men. 

On the 7th of February, as they were hoisting the 
Egyptian flag for the first time, a shot was fired at the end of 
the western road, and the sentry sang out, " Sail ho ! " It 
was the caravan from Ipoto : Surgeon Parke looking strong 
and well, but Nelson prematurely old. They had suffered 
much during their stay in the Manyuema station, where 
they had been badly lodged and fed, often flogged with rods 
or speared, if they refused to sell their rifles and clothes. 

The contrast was great between Stanley's men, now sleek 
and fat and glossy, and the poor, starved, shrunk specimens 
from Ipoto. 

On the 12th of February, Stairs came in with the sections 
of the steel boat all in good order ; that was good news. 
But there remained the question of Major Barttelot and the 
rear column. Stanley felt just now more eager to find him 
than Emin Pasha ; so he offered twenty volunteers ^10 cash 
to go back with letters, find and bring him along the old 
road. March came and went, and they rejoiced to see their 
corn and beans growing in the fields. On the 2nd of April 
thev set out once more with the steel boat to find the lake 

116 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

and Emin Pasha. On the 14th they reached the shore, where 
the natives were now friendly, for they had learnt that the 
white man (Stanley) was no friend of Kabba-Rega, their 
great foe, but only wished to find a white chief — " the very 
one who about two moons after you came here was seen in 
a big canoe — all of iron ; in the middle there rose a black 
tree, and out of it came sparks of fire and smoke." 

So Emin had come to look for Stanley — two months 
late ! Those two months wasted caused the assassination of 
Barttelot, Jameson's fever, Troup's illness, and many deaths 
by fighting. 

Stanley made friends with the chiefs, and sent Jephson 
and Parke with fifty rifles and the steel boat to convey a 
letter to Emin, asking him if he meant to leave Africa 
or not. 

On April 29th, Stanley writes : " From my tent-door at 
4.30 p.m. I saw a dark object loom up on the north-east 
horizon of the lake. ... A binocular revealed the dimen- 
sions of a vessel much larger than a boat or a canoe could 
possibly be, and presently a dark puff of smoke issuing from 
it declared her to be a steamer." 

Stanley's people flocked down to the shore, firing guns 
and shouting. At eight in the evening, Emin Pasha, with 
Captain Casati and Jephson, walked into Stanley's camp. 
It was dark, and Stanley asked — 

" Which of you is Emin Pasha ? " 

Then a man of slight figure, wearing glasses, came to 
shake hands, and said in good English, " I owe you a thou- 
sand thanks, Mr. Stanley. I really do not know how to 
express my thanks to you." 

" Do not mention thanks," said Stanley, " but come in 
and sit down." 

Emin was seen by the light of a wax candle to be dressed 
in a clean suit of white cotton drilling, well-ironed, with a 

117 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

well-kept fez on his head. He had a dark, grizzled beard, 
and looked healthy and contented. Captain Casati was 
looking gaunt and anxious, but was well dressed. 

Stanley was rather surprised. Had he come all this way 
to rescue a man who seemed quite prosperous and happy, 
and in no danger ? 

Well, they talked over the position. Emin was averse to 
leave all his people — perhaps ten thousand in all, including 
many women and children. They discussed projects and 
plans for several days, and at last Emin said, " If my people 
are willing to go, I will go with you to Egypt." 

Emin undoubtedly did care for his people ; at the 
same time he did not like the idea of giving up his great 
office and power and going to Cairo to sink into oblivion 
and be a nobody. 

In May, Emin brought many useful gifts to Stanley and 
his officers — clothes, boots, &c, made by his own men, and 
fruit, onions, honey, and salt. 

It was evident that Emin was not in the extreme distress 
they had imagined. By the Pasha's request Stanley wrote a 
letter to his soldiers, and sent Jephson to read it to the 
troops ; it ended thus : " I go back to collect my people and 
goods, and after a few months I shall come back to hear 
what you have to say. If you say, 6 Let us go to Egypt,' I 
will then show you a safe road to Zanzibar. If you say, ' We 
shall not leave this country, 1 then I will bid you farewell, 
and return to Egypt with my own people. May God have 
you in His keeping." On May 24th Stanley started away 
to find his rear-guard and Barttelot. On his way he caught 
a glimpse of the great snow mountain, Ruwenzori, which is 
generally wreathed in cloud and mist, so that neither Speke, 
Baker, Mason, or Emin ever saw it. 

In their conversation together, Emin told Stanley a 
curious fact. " The forest of Msongwa," he said, " is infested 

118 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

with chimpanzees. They come in summer to steal our fruit, 
but the strange thing is that they use torches to light their 
way at night. I have seen it myself ! One day they stole a 
drum, and I often heard them pounding away merrily on it 
in the silence of the night." Emin Pasha was more of a 
student than a ruler ; he loved botany and bird studies, and 
was too indulgent to his subjects. 

So, back into the gloomy forest they tramped, found 
Stairs and Nelson at Fort Bodo, and the surviving garrison 
very glad to see them. Many volunteered to go back with 
Stanley. The faithful dog Randy, who had borne the fatigues 
of the double march to the Albert Nyanza so well, and had 
become the pet of all, was left with Stairs in the fort to save 
him the thousand-mile journey. But poor Randy could not 
comprehend why his master had left him behind ; he refused 
to eat, and on the third day after Stanley's departure the 
faithful fox-terrier died of a broken heart. 

On the 16th of June, Stanley, with 113 Zanzibaris, 95 
carriers, and four of Emm's soldiers set out from Fort Bodo 
towards Yambuya, and in forty-seven hours reached Ipoto, 
where the Manyuema had treated them so badly before. 
The chief, Kilonga-Longa, seeing how strong and well they 
looked, made profuse apologies, and returned nineteen Rem- 
ingtons which they had stolen. They crossed the Ituri 
River, and traced their old route back through the forest, 
doing in four days what had taken them when famished 
thirteen days. The ammunition which they had buried in 
the sand was uninjured, but the carriers calmly scattered the 
corn they were carrying, to save labour, and suffered hunger 
later on. After a cold shower of rain three Madi carriers 
fell dead, and two or three men got skewered in the feet. 

By the 25th of July thirty carriers had turned from 
ebon-black to an ashy-grey hue, and all their bones stared 
out from their skin, while tumours and ulcers, dysentery and 

119 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

blood-poisoning were making sad havoc. The black ants 
dropped on naked bodies from the trees and bit savagely. 
All were living merely on bananas and roots. 

On the 17th of August they saw a large camp near 
Banalya. Stanley took his glass and shouted, " The red flag 
of Egypt, boys. The Major at last ! " Alas ! they were 
told that Major Barttelot was dead — shot by Tippu-Tib's 
people — Jameson was ill at Stanley Falls, Ward detained at 
Bangala, and Troup gone home ill — a pretty story of troubles 
to meet tired men ! 

The stench of disease hung in the air ; dead men lay in 
that camp unburied. Stanley for some hours was dazed by 
the misery he saw and heard, and the hollow eyes of dying men 
looked pleadingly and pathetically as if asking for his help. 

They started back for the Albert Lake on August 
21st, and on their way caught two pigmies, a man and a 
woman. The former, four feet high, wore a kind of biretta, 
decorated with parrot feathers, and a strip of bark-cloth 
round his loins ; his colour was coppery, and the furry hair 
on his body was nearly half an inch long. Very interesting 
to Stanley was this specimen of a race known forty centuries 
ago ; they have outlived all the dynasties of Egypt and 
Babylon, Greece and Rome, and we meet their kinsmen 
among the Bushmen of Cape Colony. 

His mobile features expressed his doubts and fears as 
they ranged him up alongside the tall Sudanese. But 
instead of killing and eating him, as he feared would be 
his lot, they stroked his back and gave him roast bananas, 
and he smiled his thanks. 

Stanley even extracted local information from him by 
pantomime, while the coppery face of the nut-brown girl 
flashed eloquent sympathy. She was as plump as a 
Christmas goose and the very picture of young modesty. 
The houses of the pigmies were low, oval structures, having 

120 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

a door two feet high. On every road, about a hundred 
yards from their camp, was a sentry-house, and poisoned 
sticks defended all approaches. The Batwa pigmies, living 
in the northern forest, have long heads, narrow faces, and 
small eyes set close together ; they look sour and querulous. 
The Wambutti, to the south, have round faces, gazelle-like 
eyes set wide apart, which look you frankly in the face, and 
they are of a rich ivory complexion. All the forest dwellers 
were of a lighter colour than those living in the sunshine. 

One day a carrier left a box of ammunition under a big 
tree. Four head-men were sent back for it, and they found 
quite a tribe of pigmies round it, trying to carry it off. 
Firing into the air the Sudanese frightened the pigmies 
away, women, children, and all. 

In December their food failed, and all grew weak and 
ill. Stanley had a little boy of eight years, Saburi, who 
used to carry his Winchester rifle and run at his leader's 
heels ; a dark, round cherub, strong and merry, and full 
of pluck. On December 9th this boy strayed to find food, 
and they lost him. About 9 p.m. they sounded the great 
ivory horns through the forest, but only ghostly echoes 
came back, and the men felt nervous. 

Stanley was very sorrowful, and thought of the boar 
and chimpanzee, the leopard and cheetah, and trampling 
elephant and strong baboons. Men also were dying of 
hunger ; all were growing weaker, and there seemed no hope. 

Next morning, however, little Saburi walked into camp as 
fresh as new paint and as if returned from a merry outing. 

" Why ! Saburi, where have you been, you rascal ? " 

" I lost my way while picking berries and wandered 
about, and near night I came to a track. I saw the marks 
of the axes, and I said, ' Ho ! this is our road, 1 but it 
led only to a big river — the Ihuru. Then I found a big, 
hollow tree, and I went into it and slept. Next morning 

121 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

I came to the track again, and so on until I walked in 
here. That is all, master." 

The reappearance of the boy heartened the men, and 
they struggled on through cotton-wood, briar and bush, 
under cathedral aisles of giant, large-leaved trees, and 
across stifling masses of rank vegetation and lazy streams 
dawdling into black pools of warm water. 

After six months' absence they were welcomed into Fort 
Bodo on December 20, 1888, with joy and gratitude, the 
fifty-nine riflemen of the garrison leaping around Stanley 
like eager spaniels — all strong and healthy under Nelson, 
Stairs, and Parke. 

On the 6th of February Jephson arrived from his stay 
with Emin. 

He told them of a mutiny amongst Emm's soldiers, who 
would not believe that Khartoum had fallen, but feared they 
were to be made slaves to the English ; of his own imprison- 
ment together with Emin, of a letter from the Mahdi, of 
dissensions in consequence that ended in their being released. 
He also assured Stanley that most of the Egyptians and 
Sudanese preferred to stay in the country, where they had 
families and slaves ; in Egypt they would be poor again. 
As to Emin, he could not make up his mind what to 
choose. 

" It seems to me," said Jephson, " if we are to save him, 
we must first save him from himself." 

As Emin proposed to visit Stanley at Ravalli's station, 
Jephson was sent down to meet him. They came, sixty-five 
persons and two hundred loads ! Amongst them was a 
deputation from the revolted troops. Stanley explained 
over again that the Khedive gave them their free choice, 
to go or stay in the country. 

They elected to go with Stanley, and he wrote out for 
them his conditions. 

122 




Baboons returning from a Raid 



In the van march the heads of the tribe on the look-out for possible enemies, 
followed by others laden with plantains, nuts, and dates. 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

Emin brought into Stanley's camp his six-year-old 
daughter, Ferida, of an Abyssinian mother ; a pretty child, 
with beautiful black eyes. 

The camp was spreading out into a town, and women 
were grinding corn all day long. 

The Pasha was busy collecting specimens. He knew the 
weight and size of his men, but knew little of their 
thoughts. He believed they were true and faithful, and 
Stanley declared they were false and treacherous. 

Emin's officers disobeyed his commands. They promised 
to get ready their families and goods, but kept wasting 
time, until at last Stanley spoke out firmly. He reminded 
Emin that he had a duty to perform to the Relief Com- 
mittee as well as to Emin himself. Every month in Africa 
cost i?400. The Zanzibaris, of course, wished to return 
to their homes ; and he added sternly, " I have been warned 
that I must be on my guard. Your troops captured 
Mr. Jephson, and in menacing him with rifles they insulted 
me. They intended to capture me on my return here ; 
but let me tell you that before they arrive within rifle-shot 
of this camp every officer will be in my power. " 

Stanley consulted his officers in the presence of Emin, 
and they all voted against any further extension of time 
than the 10th of April. 

As plots thickened, and Stanley's life, together with 
that of his officers and men, was menaced by the growing 
treachery of Emin's soldiers, the signal for a general muster 
was sounded. Emm's Arabs did not answer to the call, 
so Stanley sent No. 1 Company, armed with clubs, to drive 
every Arab, Egyptian, and Sudanese into the square. 

The Zanzibaris thoroughly enjoyed thrashing the vakeel, 
captains, and clerks who had so often insulted them. 

Then Stanley accused Emm's men of stealing his rifles. 
He scolded them and frightened them into abject submission. 

123 



STANLEY AND EMIN 

" No Mahdist, Arabist, or rebel can breathe in my 
camp," said Stanley ; and Emin's pampered troops felt the 
difference between a weak and kindly ruler and a sturdy 
Briton who would stand no nonsense. They one and all 
expressed their desire to be led to Zanzibar. 

On the 10th of April a column of 1500 people streamed 
out in good order, all apparently happy to go ; and their 
straw town was fired by Nelson, the smoke announcing to 
the natives around that the expedition had gone. 

They began with very short marches, but even thus 
many complained. 

" The whining people, 1 ' says Stanley, " who were unable 
to walk empty-handed two or three hours a day were 
yellow Egyptians ; a man with a little black pigment in 
his skin seldom complained, the extreme black or white 
never." 

As they passed the base of Mount Ruwenzori, Stanley 
asked for volunteers to ascend it. " 111 go like a shot," 
said Lieutenant Stairs. Forty Zanzibaris went with him, 
and Emin Pasha started, but soon returned in distress. 
The climbers reached 10,677 feet above the sea, having 
6000 feet above them. They brought the Pasha some 
specimens to console him. 

We cannot follow them in their long travel to the East 
Coast, but we must echo Stanley's praise for Dr. Parke, 
who won all hearts by his kindness and skill. A young 
pigmy damsel had for a year attended on the doctor, 
guarded his tent, carried his satchel, collected fuel, and 
made his evening tea. But, alas ! the glare of sunshine 
and the absence of forest shade affected the girl's health 
so much that she had to be left with the chief of Kim- 
zumo. Whether she, too, like the fox-terrier, died of a 
broken heart, we are not told. 

On the evening of 3rd December 1889, as they sat 
1M 



THROUGH CONGO FORESTS 

talking in the moonlight, the boom of a big gun came 
faintly to their ears. 

All the Zanzibaris jumped up and yelled with frantic joy. 

" Why ! don't you know ? that was the evening gun at 
Zanzibar ! " 

They were then in German territory, and next day 
Major Wissman came across the Kingani River to welcome 
them ; and when they saw the blue Indian Ocean, they one 
and all thanked God — they were once more at home. The 
German battery thundered out its salute to the Governor 
of Equatoria and his brave rescuers. 

At the mess banquet in the evening Emin gracefully 
thanked the generous English people for thinking of him, 
Gordon's last representative. The Pasha was supremely 
happy and gay amongst his own countrymen ; but Sali, 
Stanley's boy- steward, came up with a grave face and 
whispered, " The Pasha has fallen down, sir . . . he is 
dangerously hurt." 

The poor, short-sighted Pasha had fallen into the street 
over the verandah. Stanley went to the hospital and saw 
him lying unconscious. 

After so many dangers, so many lives lost in his rescue, 
it did seem a sad and bitter ending — the irony of destiny. 

However, Emin did not die, but lived to take office 
under his Kaiser. Perhaps Stanley had been a little over- 
bearing to him at times ; but the scientist was really too 
weak, and would have thrown away his own life if he had 
not been firmly saved from himself. 

Anyhow, Stanley and his officers had done their best, 
and had earned the thanks of Europe ; and Queen Victoria 
cabled from Windsor : " My thoughts are often with you 
and your brave followers, whose dangers and hardships are 
now at an end. ... I heartily congratulate all." l 

1 From In Darkest Africa, by kind permission of Lady Stanley. 

125 



CHAPTER VII 

WALTER MONTAGU KERR AND GROGAN 

YOUNG Kerr was probably the first European who 
traversed the great stretch of country lying between 
Cape Colony and the central lakes of Africa. What 
makes his journey so remarkable is the fact that he had no 
caravan, no number of armed natives, and most of the way 
no white comrade to give him support and sympathy. He 
painfully toiled north till he crossed the Zambezi at Tette, 
passed through the danger zone at Angoniland, and reached 
Lake Nyassa. Thence he canoed down the Shire River, 
which runs south into the Zambezi. 

Between Matabeleland and the Zambezi Kerr passed 
through several unknown lands and tribes. He lived on 
what he shot, lost nearly all his botanical specimens, but 
made many geographical notes. 

Walter Montagu was a son of Lord Charles Kerr (pro- 
nounced Carr), and a good-looking Scot, a keen hunter, and 
a bold adventurer. His lonely journey made him familiar 
with the natives, who sometimes were so surprised by his 
appearance among them that they took him for a spirit from 
another world. 

He tells us that, like Thomson, in reading about the 
old explorers he was fired with the thought that some day he 
too would wander over virgin soil on the dark, mysterious 
continent of Africa. 

But fate took him first to other savage lands. It was 
not till December 1883 that he left Dartmouth for the Cape 

126 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

in the Drummond Castle, with only a vague notion of what 
he should do next. 

He studied the map, and found that the fewest names of 
places lay between Matabeleland and Nyassa. Dr. Holut, 
the naturalist, whom he met in Cape Town, warmly approved 
of his project of going north, and suggested his buying some 
good instruments. 

At Klerksdorp, Kerr met the great hunter, Selous, who 
took him in his cart as far as to King Lobengula's kraal. 
This king, then fat and old, was angered at that time by 
some Boers having shot his sea-cows (hippopotamus). For, 
like the Zulus, the Matabele believe that the spirits of their 
ancesters dwell in the bodies of the hippo and the crocodile. 

However, Selous being a friend of "Lo-ben," got per- 
mission for Kerr to go through his country. Kerr was re- 
ceived by " Lo-ben " in a friendly manner, for the king only 
said when told that Kerr wished to travel to the Zambezi, 
"It is very far away." 

Here Kerr had his first experience of royal manners in 
Africa, as he drank beer with some of the king's wives, who 
reclined easily upon grass mats, basking in the sun like so 
many glossy seals, scented with wild flowers, and beaming 
with good nature and merriment. 

" Are you married ? " asked one. Then merrily, " Oh ! 
now choose a wife at once ! " 

As Kerr bade the king good-bye, " Go well, son of the 
sea," was his reply. 

Kerr's equipage consisted of a broken-down cart drawn by 
six oxen ; John, his driver ; a Makololo named Taroman ; 
Sagman, a Makololo ; Karemba of Mashonaland, and a Bush- 
man, Windvogel. 

At the outset John got drunk and upset the cart, and 
Kerr had to mend it. Later he obtained a waggon and 
twelve good oxen, and received a welcome at the last mission 

127 



WALTER M. KERR AND GROGAN 

station of the London Society in Matabeleland, and a letter 
to take to the missionaries at the lakes. 

Soon Kerr was in the big game country, shooting zebra 
and hartebeeste, finding the nights growing colder as he 
climbed higher, and being bothered by the chirp of the honey- 
birds which warned the game of the hunter's approach. 

Shooting elephants for meat and tusks seems extravagant 
work, and no doubt that intelligent and useful animal will 
soon be exterminated, as Arabs and others plunge further 
into the forest to discover and slay. 

Coming into Mashonaland, Kerr soon noticed that the 
people were darker, inferior in physique to the Matabele, 
and less brave. They were careful to live in well-fenced 
towns, and feared the approach of strangers. They lived on 
maize, meal, and nuts. 

A chief named Chibero admitted Kerr to his presence, 
but refused him boys to lead him to Tette, the Portuguese 
settlement on the Zambezi. In fact the Mashona laughed 
at the idea of going so far from home, and Kerr in future 
only asked for boys to take him from tribe to tribe. 

On coming to the Hanyani River he had to leave waggon 
and oxen and go on foot, for the tsetse-fly district was not 
far off. 

But Kerr's faithful men were in no hurry to leave 
Mashonaland for the unknown dangers of the north. 

" What are you doing, John ? B asked Kerr. 

" I melt de fat of de oliphant, master, to take back when 
I go home. Dar is man in Natal dat give me £1 for 
de small cupful.'" 

Karemba was playing the native piano as the Mashona 
danced to him, and became vastly popular. 

Taroman had disappeared after setting the grass on fire, 
and Kerr could get no natives to go with him and carry his 
trade calico and beads. 

128 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

The weight of his baggage now was four hundred and 
fifty pounds, being about eighteen pounds each to his twenty- 
five carriers. 

Taroman was to be sent back with the oxen ; but 
Karemba suggested to his master a plan to prevent the 
waggon being stolen. 

Standing in front of the waggon, Kerr assumed a satanic 
aspect, glancing fiercely at the upturned face of his watch. 
He then walked solemnly round the waggon, waving the 
black crowd away, and intoning a curse against any who 
should steal aught. 

The fetish seemed to work well, and the natives sat in 
silent awe. 

But John sat still by the fire, thinking gloomily. 

" Well, what's the matter now, John ? " 

44 Ah ! master, I never see people like here ! they want 
to take all de tings. My Gaut ! Limbo and beads ! limbo 
and beads ! — everee day all de same. What shall us do ? " 

Perhaps John was thinking not so much of his master's 
welfare as of how little would be left for his own " leetle wife. r> 

When Kerr arrived in the country of the Makorikori he 
forgot the etiquette proper to the occasion. He ought to 
have sat down and sent to the chief for leave to come in. 
Instead of that he advanced right up to the foot of the king's 
kraal, which was perched on a great rock high above the 
fields of corn that spread around. 

He sent Karemba with a gift of some calico, asking to see 
the chief. 

Chuza, the chief, sat surrounded by young warriors and 
slave girls, who were there to hand him tobacco or beer on 
bended knee, with hands joined together palms upwards. 
Kerr advanced with a smile, but Chuza, whose face was 
tattooed with tiny marks, while his body was adorned with 
little stars, scowled upon the stranger and said — 

129 i 



WALTER M. KERR AND GROGAN 

" My heart is sore because the white man has come into 

my country without asking permission or sending a present." 

Karemba then presented the cloth through one of the 

courtiers, for the chief never receives a present in his own 

hands. 

The interview was gloomy, and at night the war-drums 
droned, and the silence of the forest was broken by the loud 
war-cries of savages coming nearer and nearer. 

Next day Chuza and his warriors sat a little way off, and 
kept asking — 

" What does the white man want in my country ? * 
Kerr asked Karemba to assure the chief that he was not 
a Portuguese, and did not want to buy slaves ; he also 
showed off his big-game gun, and made Chuza wink as he 
pretended to fire. 

In the evening a boy came to Kerr's hut and told him it 
had been decided that they were all to be killed that night, 
for Chuza thought the stranger had come as a spy. 

When it was dark Kerr made his men shoulder their 
loads and quietly decamp. The Mashona never marched so 
quickly before in their lives ; they crossed a small river and 
got safely back into the forest. 

The Mashona then were glad : they thought they were 
going back to Buluwayo. After a retreat of fifty miles Kerr 
struck a better way, where chief and men welcomed him 
into Inyota with clapping of hands and passing round of 
snuff. Chibabura, the chief, was greatly interested in the 
elephant-rifle and looking-glass ; they were not all satisfied, 
however, with their own reflected image, and some tried 
to scowl surreptitiously at the glass, but never succeeded 
in taking the mirror unawares. 

When Kerr left these people he was impressed with the 
belief that the civilised poor man is not half so happy as the 
free savage, though the latter is so dirty and knows so little, 

130 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

cannot cook, and has no ideals or clothes ! On leaving the 
country of the Makorikori they drew near the land of the 
tsetse-fly. It became hotter, and Kerr found that drinking 
hot tea was the most refreshing thing. His men constantly 
craved to go home ; they disliked lions and wolves and 
rhinoceros. They had to be bribed with cloth and promises 
of more on reaching the Zambezi. 

The next chief whose town they entered was away, and 
his deputy was timid and treacherous. It was etiquette 
here for courtiers to shuffle their feet on the sand as they 
approached the stool of authority, but Karemba put on a 
swaggering air and raised no submission dust, for he felt he 
was a free son of the mountains. Wearing proudly a hat and 
shirt, he stalked in front of the chief and asked for a light 
for his pipe. 

As no one understood the language of the country, a 
long silence prevailed, each fearing his neighbour. 

At last one old black fellow, who had been with Portu- 
guese, came up to Kerr and said, "Elle tem medo de 
guerra ! " (He is afraid of war !). Umfana, one of Kerr's 
boys, could understand the people a little better than the 
others, so he was sent to explain that his master was only 
going to the Zambezi and wanted a hut for his boys. 

As Umfana expounded this doctrine with many gesticu- 
lations, John came up saying, " Master, dat black man is 
asking Umfana what for de master walk up to him mit de 
assegai, and what for Karem mit de gun and all de cart- 
ridges. Master, dese Portuguese is awful black ! " 

" There are no Portuguese here, John ; they are only 
black men dressed in white." 

After long deliberation two huts were assigned them. 

The smaller Kerr took for himself; its walls and floors 
were smeared with mud, the roof was a network of cobwebs 
and soot, a tiny window admitted a handbreadth of light ; 

131 



WALTER M. KERR AND GROGAN 

the smell was more antique than the building, and rats 
squealed all night ; but travellers must take what comes. 

Kerr had hoped to be able to buy cloth here, but this 
was only a Kaffir kraal ; he was running short, and had only 
a few yards of striped cloth, which he had promised John 
" for his leetle wife."" 

The second night Kerr was resolved to spend under a 
tree, but many kind villagers warned him by pantomime 
that a wolf might bite off his nose. However, he took the 
risk for health's sake. 

Many days' successful hunting kept Kerr's men faithful, 
though they all wished to go home. The idea of conoeing 
to the Zambezi by the Msingua River had been suggested 
to Kerr long before, but the bed was so dry that he had to 
dig a hole every time he bathed. As stores got lower and 
lower, Kerr consulted John one night in the dark. 

" Well, John, what shall we do ? " 

" Oh ! master, de sugar is done, de tea is done, de 
rice is done, and dar is no meat, and we shall die from de 
hunger." 

The result was that Kerr resolved to wait no longer for 
the king, but to tramp on with swollen feet and chance 
getting game to eat on the road. 

They were at once victims of the tsetse-fly, which could 
bite through the thickest clothes, but the little creature 
fortunately took some "hours off" at night. Mr. Baines 
in The Gold Regions of South-East Africa describes this pest 
as being about half an inch long and rather more slender 
than a house-fly ; the abdomen is marked with stripes of 
yellow, fading towards the centre of the back ; the wings, of 
glossy brown colour, slip one over the other as the blades of 
a pair of scissors when closed — an infallible token of this fly. 
It has six legs, and tufts of hair over its body. It sticks to 
the skin, which it pierces with its lancet, and then injects a 

132 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

fluid poisonous to oxen, horses, and dogs, in order to thin 
the blood before drinking it. 

One night as Kerr slept under his low tent he was roused 
by the purr of some animal. Starting up, he seized his small 
rifle and crept out on hands and knees. It was clear moon- 
light, and a lion passed close to his face and disappeared 
with a low growl into the bush. 

Kerr looked round and found that the fires were out and 
the Kaffirs were all sleeping together at a distance under an 
old shelter. This experience taught our hero never to sleep 
without making a skerm or fence round his tent. On 
meeting with a number of men from the Zambezi, who 
were celebrating a festival, Kerr thought it a good oppor- 
tunity to pay off the boys who had been with him so long. 
They were wild with delight, and one of them took off his 
iron and copper bead bracelets and gave them to his master. 

"Wild, unfettered, robust, he possessed in a marked 
degree the coveted happiness of a natural life," says Kerr. 

Karemba, after being paid, asked for one thing more. 

" Well, what is it, boy ? I have already given you some 
pretty clothes, Karemba." 

" Master, I be quite happy if you gib me them trousers. 11 

A nice pair of corduroys ! But Kerr at once retired to 
his den and divested himself of that garment, for Karemba 
had been such a good boy. 

So, with new boys, Kerr started off for the Zambezi, and 
in a few days they came upon the big river, a thousand 
yards in width. 

Hundreds of storks were flying high in great circles, 
their white plumage gleaming brightly against the blue 
sky ; on the sands a few cranes were playing at fishing. 

As Kerr drew near to Tette, the great Portuguese trading 
station, he began to feel conscious of his rags and tatters. 
But he had a letter from the Portuguese consul at the 

133 



WALTER M. KERR AND GROGAN 

diamond fields in his pocket, and he stepped up to the porch 
of the governor's house and sent it in with his compliments. 

The governor, Senhor Braga, received him courteously, 
and gave him rooms for himself and his men. The Govern- 
ment, he found, had to rely upon black men for labour and 
even for soldiers ; only thirty Europeans resided in Tette ; the 
Jesuit Fathers had dwindled ; the hunters no longer came in 
great numbers to hunt the elephant, as that intelligent 
beast had trekked to the far interior. For two hundred 
years the Portuguese had been the masters, but they had 
made little impression on the natives. Malarial fever kept 
the river basin very select. No coffee, tea, nor sugar are 
liked in Tette, whose people are very black, and prefer their 
own beer. White ants are the real owners of houses, clothes, 
and furniture, and the crocodiles in the river eat a hundred 
persons every year. 

A week's stay here with the governor, good food, rest 
and pleasant companionship made Kerr a new man, and he 
soon yearned to go north to the Angoni. 

One of the Jesuit Fathers bade him good-bye most 
dolefully : " Oh ! I am afraid you will be killed — never see 
home and England again." 

A great crowd saw them off into the" boats, and they 
paddled across the mighty river with farewell shouts ringing 
in their ears. 

Some of his new boys were Landin, whose home was to 
the west of Lake Nyassa ; these were delighted to get away 
from the town, and on reaching the further shore threw off 
their skin sporrans and bits of calico and danced for joy. 

The governor's secretary had chosen the " boys " — but 
Kerr thought he had never seen such wild savages. He 
believed that his exertions in hunting for food saved him from 
fever ; and now he was climbing into high ground, where 
lovely trees afforded shade and pure air gave them fresh vigour. 

134 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

But in a few days he was told that the Landin would 
desert him. 

Their leader, a man of Arab type, said they had been 
forced to enlist as carriers by the press-gang at Tette, and 
had been given only two fathoms of flimsy cotton instead of 
four. 

"But why did you not refuse to move until you were 
paid?" 

" The deputy of the governor threatened to throw us all 
into gaol." 

Kerr did not blame them nor the governor, but his 
deputy he could have shot with satisfaction ; of course he 
had to make up the difference. 

Then the Landin were satisfied, except that Kerr was 
bringing them too near the Makanga, who were their cruel 
foes. 

Another thing which the Landin told him was that the 
Tette folk had said, " Don't go with the Igrezi (English), 
for they eat people." 

Kerr then tried to explain to them that the Igrezi had 
been the first to put down slavery ; so hard is it to defeat a 
lie, he was barely believed. 

After this a grass fire and a want of food annoyed them. 
Kerr blamed his men for having thrown away rice in the 
Zambezi valley ; they had also eaten all his biscuits and 
sugar on the sly. Next day the Landin men set off 
quickly, and the others would not budge until kicked up ; 
when Kerr forced them on he lost the Landin, who had 
bolted with their loads. 

In the evening they came near a town of the Angoni, 
whose inhabitants had heard of a white man coming ; for 
whole swarms of men, women, children, and dogs turned out 
to see the intruder, who had seated himself under a baobab 
tree and waited for the sentence of the chief. 

135 



WALTER M. KERR AND GROGAN 

They had to sit there for hours, gazed upon by the 
dirtiest set of savages in all Africa ; in the crowd Kerr 
saw one of his own Landin ! 

As they waited and waited, at length Misiri, Kerr's 
interpreter, said, with a twinkle in his eye, " Well, master, 
youVe got here." It sounded rather sarcastic to the weary 
traveller. 

"Go and buy some food, Misiri — try that fat old 
woman. 11 

The man returned with two squalling hens and only an 
apology for a waist-cloth. 

" Where are your clothes, Misiri ? " Kerr inquired 
sternly. 

" Buying ! " was all he answered ; but it spoke volumes. 

An awful night passed in a goat-house did not mend 
matters. Next morning Misiri appeared, drunk but affec- 
tionate : he had sold the remains of his waist-cloth to buy 
beer ! 

However, Kerr hired six Angoni men to take him to the 
lake to his white brothers — Livingstonia — where he would 
buy more cloth to pay his men. 

We cannot give in detail the adventures and perils of 
that long tramp through forest and swamp, rock and 
rivulet, mountain and yawning canon. At last the sight 
of the lake burst upon the jaded explorer ; he took a canoe 
and paddled round a rocky point to Livingstonia, the mis- 
sion station, where he knew he should be warmly welcomed. 
As he drew near he saw crowds of people on the beach — one 
man with a red umbrella. 

Alas ! a great shock was in store for him ! The mission- 
aries had died, or gone away ; all was deserted ; there was no 
white man to greet him, but the black man under the red 
gingham said to Kerr in broken English — 

" Veree seek contry ; all dead, all gone ! " 
136 



ALONE THROUGH THE UNKNOWN 

But the traveller did not lose time in vain regrets ; he 
explored the empty rooms, slept many nights there, went 
to take medicine to a sick chief who had asked for him. 
" Little did I imagine at the time," he says, " that I was 
doing a service to a man with a history ; to one who had 
faithfully followed the intrepid Livingstone." For it was 
Chimlolo, the Makololo chief, whom Livingstone had 
brought here and made chief over some tribes on the 
Shire River ; and the old man, we are glad to hear, recovered 
by Kerr's treatment. After many days the little steamer 
Ilala came and took him off to Blantyre, whence he gained 
the Indian Ocean and home. 

And Kerr, looking back upon his adventures, asks : 
" Does it not say much for the negro that such a journey 
was possible ? I found that he had a vast deal of good in 
his composition — that kindness, firmness, and justice were 
the surest road to success." 

And what about our hero, who trusted his life at so early 
an age to the wildest tribes in all Africa ? 

In 1888 he again felt the call to Africa, and landed at 
Mombasa, hoping to cross by Uganda to the Upper Nile, 
where Emin Pasha then was. But when only a few miles 
from the coast he fell ill, had to return to Cairo, and died 
in the south of France full of intense sorrow and regret that 
he could not make his way across Africa from east to 
west. 

Like Thomson, he won his way through the wilds by 
kindness and sympathy ; and, like Thomson, he died before 
his work in life was completed. 1 

1 Kerr's Far Interior, by kind permission of Messrs. S. Low, Marston 
and Co. 



137 



GROGAN AND SHARP 

GROGAN AND SHARP 

We cannot omit some mention of the remarkable 
journey From the Cape to Cairo, the first traverse of 
Africa from south to north, made by Mr. E. S. Grogan. 
Mr. Rhodes in the preface says : " The amusement of the 
whole thing is that a youth from Cambridge during his 
vacation should have succeeded in doing that which the 
ponderous explorers of the world have failed to 
accomplish. " 

Grogan's first experience of Africa was in the second 
Matabele War, when the railway had only got as far as 
Mafeking. He returned to England, but felt again the " call 
of the wild," and started once more for Rhodesia. Again, 
in February 1898, in company with Arthur H. Sharp, he 
started from Beira in Portuguese East Africa for Salisbury, 
and spent some months in shooting big game ; then north 
to the Shire River and up by a small steamer to Blantyre, 
where he found a hotel and avenues of eucalyptus planted 
by the missionaries, which would have grown successfully if 
only the white ants would have desisted from attacking the 
roots. 

It is strange how in a very few years the savagery of 
Africa has been in parts driven away before the march of 
the missionary and the trader. Dr. Robert Laws, the head 
of a mission on the shore of Lake Nyassa, had started a print- 
ing press worked by natives ! 

Thence Grogan went on, ever hunting and shooting, 
across the Tanganyika plateau, marking the traces of the 
Zulu in the noble features and frames of the Awemba, in 
their straight, well-cut noses and bronze colour. But some 
of the chiefs, in their love for music, when they had found 
a good singer among their boys, used to remove his eyes to 
keep him from straying far away. Many women and men 

138 



FROM CAPE TO CAIRO 

were also mutilated, and deprived of ears, lips, hands, or 
breasts, just to teach them to be submissive. 

Facts like these go far to justify Europeans in taking 
these poor creatures under their protection. 

Grogan visited Ujiji, the meeting-place of Stanley and 
Livingstone, and found a German Government House and a 
mission station. Hauptmann Bethe plied the Englishman 
with many wines " to keep off fever." All the German posts 
were well kept ; markets were stored with fish, bananas, and 
grain ; black troops under German officers were well disci- 
plined, and " the man on the spot " given a free hand to 
do his best. 

In hunting elephants, Grogan noticed how big game 
can pass on the danger-signal by some power or sense un- 
known to man ; in a herd of elephants more than once he 
found that a wounded bull was helped on by his brothers 
in the herd. 

By Lake Kivu the population were divided into two 
castes, the Watusi and the Wahutu — the former being 
the pastoral aristocrats, tall, graceful, and refined ; the 
latter, though far more numerous, being the servants 
of all. 

On reaching the Albert Edward Lake, Grogan found 
the water salt and very shallow near the shore. Here 
natives visited him and offered to sell him some ivory if 
he would make blood-brotherhood with the chief. 

Grogan assented, but put forward his head-man as his 
proxy. 

The two " brothers " sat opposite each other, each 
having a sponsor who held a small piece of meat in his 
hand. Then a curse was pronounced on either party that 
should be untrue to the pledge— 

" May hippopotami run against him ; may leopards tear 
him by night ; may hunger and thirst grip him ; may his 

139 



GROG AN AND SHARP 

children wither, even as the grass ; may crocodiles rend him 
and lions howl round his couch," &c. 

After this a slight cut was made on the chest of each 
" brother " ; the raw meat was dipped in the blood, and 
each had to devour the piece smeared with the blood of 
the other. 

A loaded gun was fired into the air. After the native 
ceremony was concluded they were taught to shake hands as 
Europeans do. As they hunted together, the chief and his 
men showed Sharp how their hounds rounded the antelope 
within reach of their spears. 

The whole south shore of the lake was the home of 
hundreds of hippo, who bellowed and grunted so loud all 
night that sleep was difficult to come by. There were great 
swamps around, and geysers were shooting vast jets of steam 
into the air, for the volcanic activity was great. 

There is a great deal in Grogan's book about shooting 
big game, and he seems to have sent the tusks to certain 
ports for registration. 

Often he waited hours until he could get a good oppor- 
tunity to shoot an elephant in a mortal spot. " Down we 
scrambled and stood in the bed of the stream listening. 
Then the crack of a twig and the waving of the tops of 
the grass showed he was coming. ... I fired at his head, 
giving him a second as he swung round. Down he came 
like an avalanche, and lay thrashing the reeds with his 
trunk. . . . Presently he got up again, but after three more 
shots I heard the welcome roar of rending tree and bush. 
He was down : a long gurgle and a sob, and all was over. ,, 

The elephant is so docile and intelligent, that to kill 
him seems almost like murdering a human being. 

Even in Africa the system of sweating was in vogue, for 
the Mangama carriers would hunt up some starving boy to 
carry their loads, while they walked like gentlemen at large. 

140 



FROM CAPE TO CAIRO 

Volcanoes and pigmies were met with, the latter inquisitive, 
but not hostile, and so quick of foot that no man could 
catch them. Once, when Grogan and Sharp had separated, 
and the latter did not turn up when expected, it was through 
an elderly pigmy that Grogan discovered which way his 
friend had gone. 

In Dinkaland many men were 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 
6 inches in height, well built and well shaped ; each carried 
a long-bladed spear and a club of heavy wood ; a feather in 
the hair seems to be their only garment. 

Living in the marshes, they walk like herons, and have 
developed their great height by wading in water, as the 
giraffe has his long neck by reaching up to tall branches. 
Their intense respect is expressed to you by politely spitting 
in your hand, or on your chest. 

Tired of the swamps, wondering how he should last out 
four days more, Grogan was tramping on and pushing his 
sick men forward at the point of the spear, when he saw a 
pole swaying in the wind. 

It proved to be the mast of a boat on the Nile. Very 
soon he met Captain Dunn, R.A.M.C, who was hunting. 
They explained to each other who they were, and what they 
were doing in that lone country — that howling waste of weed, 
mosquitoes, and fever, where the native mind, according to 
Grogan, understands not either pity or gratitude. And as 
Captain Dunn took the young hunter down to Cairo, he 
learnt little by little that he was conversing with one of 
Britain's heroes. Grogan ends his preface thus : " We live 
but once ; let us be able, when the last summons comes, to 
say with the greatest of us all, ' Tread me down. Pass on. 
I have done my work. 1 " 

1 From the Oape to Cairo, by kind permission of E. S. Grogan, Esq., and 
Messrs. Hurst & Blacketfc. 



141 



CHAPTER VIII 
SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

IN his Autobiography, edited by Lady Stanley, his wife, 
we find Sir Henry writing thus : " I believe the story 

of my efforts, struggles, sufferings, and failures, of the 
work done and the work left undone — I believe this story 
would help others.'" . 

We can only give a mere outline of these efforts, except 
in so far as this great explorer had to do with Africa ; and 
even in Africa his deeds and daring and endurance were so 
extensive that it is possible to do no more than give a 
sample here and there. Those who want more must seek it 
in his most interesting Autobiography, soon to be re-issued 
in a shorter form under the direction of Lady Stanley. 

Henry Stanley's father, John Rowlands, died when he 
was a child, and he was left one day at the workhouse of 
St. Asaph, in North Wales. Here he was not very happy, for 
he says, " No Greek helot or dark slave ever underwent such 
discipline as the boys of St. Asaph under the heavy masterful 
hand of James Francis, the one-handed schoolmaster. The 
ready back- slap in the face, the stunning clout over the ear 
. . . were so frequent that it is a marvel we ever recovered 
our senses ; our heads were cuffed, and slapped, and pounded, 
until we lay speechless and streaming with blood." 

Such a painful experience of unloving life was the 
hammer which beat out the true metal on the anvil of 
inherited character. His friends here were not all of 
common mould ; two or three boys became, like himself, 
distinguished men. 

At the age of twelve he was told his mother and two 
142 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

children had entered the " house " ; but she knew not her 
first-born, and the poor boy sadly wondered. 

In the end Rowlands revolted against his unjust and 
frenzied master, and, instead of preparing himself for a flog- 
ging, kicked the brute, broke his glasses, and flogged him with 
his own blackthorn. The master fell, and while he was un- 
conscious the future explorer of Africa, together with another 
boy, climbed over the garden wall and escaped to Denbigh, 
where an old dame directed him to the farm of his grand- 
father on his father's side, John Rowlands, of Llys, Llanrhaiadr. 
The old man, who was well off, heard the boy's tale 
calmly, and, pointing with his pipe to the door, said, " You 
can go back the same way you came ; I can do nothing for 
you, and have nothing to give you." 

His uncles also, having families of their own, got rid of 
him, but less coldly. 

Moses Owen, Stanley's cousin, and a schoolmaster, 
having examined him by some hard questions, offered to 
take him as a pupil teacher. 

Here his cousin lent him books in the evening, and 
helped his studies ; but after a time the schoolmaster grew 
tired of being the benevolent cousin, and sent young 
Rowlands to his mother's farm at Beuno, which overlooks 
the Vale of Clwyd. Here the boy helped on the farm, or 
in the house, but was often reminded that very soon he 
must go and make his own fortune as he could. 

Sometimes as he sat on Craig Fawr, tending the sheep, 
he was sublimely happy in his freedom — alone with his 
thoughts and with God ! 

Then one day an aunt came from Liverpool and offered 

to get the boy a post, which would open out to a good career. 

So he was put on board a tiny steam -packet, and arrived 

at the house of his uncle Tom, a kind and bluff old man, but 

poor withal. 

The hope of getting a good post soon faded. Rowlands, 
143 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.R 

unwilling to be a charge to his relations, took a place in 
a shop, working from seven to nine ; then shipped on board 
the Windermere as cabin boy. 

Three days 1 sickness was followed by a peremptory 
command : " Step up in a brace of shakes, or I'll skin your 
carcase alive for you." 

However, Long Hart, the tall cook, was kind to the 
boy, and told him many exciting stories of the deep and 
of old-time cruelties. After some rough handling by the 
second mate, Rowlands went ashore with a boy-friend at 
New Orleans, and enjoyed a good supper. 

On returning to the ship he was so pestered and scolded 
as he cleaned the brass-work that he concluded they meant 
to force him to vamoose, or run away, in order to get 
the money due to him for the voyage. 

So at night he left the ship with his Bible and in his 
best clothes. He slept among some cotton bales, and next 
morning wandered up and down a street, and at last ad- 
dressed a gentleman who was reading a paper near a store. 

" Do you want a boy, sir ? " 

" Can you read ? What book is that ? " 

" My Bible, sir ; a present from our bishop. Oh yes, I 
can read." 

" Let me see your Bible ? " 

Rowlands gave it to the gentleman, who smiled when he 
read on the fly-leaf, " Presented to John Rowlands, by the 
Right Rev. Vowler Short, D.D., Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, 
for diligence and good conduct, January 5, 1855." 

He was then set to mark addresses on twenty sacks of 
coffee, and gave satisfaction. Then his new friend took 
him to a restaurant for breakfast and a wash and brush up; 
then back to the owner of the store, who had just arrived. 

After a short conference, Mr. Speake offered Rowlands 
five dollars a week, and the boy turned with a full heart 
to thank his unknown friend. 

144 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

" There, that will do ; I know what is in your heart. 
Shake hands. I am going up river, but I shall on my 
return hope to hear well of you." 

The boy learnt that this gentleman was Mr. Stanley. 

Yesterday the boy was a slave ; to-day he felt all the 
pride of the free ! 

Rowlands was so eager to work hard that the two 
negroes whom he was helping said, "Take it easy, little 
boss ; don't kill yourself." 

The new boy gave such satisfaction that he was per- 
manently engaged at twenty-five dollars a month. He 
lodged with a kind, young negress, who was as a mother 
to him. He saved money, and bought many books. 

When Mr. Stanley returned he invited Rowlands to 
breakfast, and introduced him to his wife — the first lady 
he had ever spoken to ! 

From that time the boy spent every Sunday with these 
kind friends, and met at their house learned and cultivated 
people. So, little by little, the mean associations of the 
workhouse were being obliterated ; the old bitterness was 
being removed by sympathy, and Mrs. Stanley became a 
real mother to the outcast boy. 

When, shortly after, she lay on her death-bed, she 
turned to her protege and murmured, " Be a good boy. 
God bless you ! " 

And when, later, Mr. Stanley caressed the boy and said 
with emotion, " Your future, my boy, shall be my charge," 
the boy took it as an answer to prayer. He broke down 
and sobbed from extreme gratitude. 

" The golden period of my life," he writes, " began from 
that supreme moment ! For to be lifted out of the depths of 
destitution to a paternal refuge bordered on the miraculous." 
Mr. Stanley, too, had been considering the boy's coming 
as miraculous, for both he and his wife had often longed 
for a son, and had thought of adopting one. So, when the 

145 k 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

ship-boy startled him by suddenly asking, " Do you want a 
boy, sir ? " it seemed as if he had been sent from heaven. 
After a long talk, in which John Rowlands confided to his 
new father all the incidents of his life, the latter said — 

"As you are wholly unclaimed, without parent or 
sponsor, I promise to take you for my son and fit you for 
a mercantile career. In future you are to bear my name, 
' Henry Stanley.' " 

With these words, the elder man dipped his hands in a 
basin of water and made the sign of the cross on the boy's 
forehead. 

Mr. Stanley was no ordinary person. He set about 
training his son's reason and powers of observation — little 
thinking then, perhaps, what a good work he was doing for 
the world at large. So the shy, silent, brooding lad grew, 
under kinder treatment, affectionate, zealous, and docile. 

In 1858 the war between North and South had broken 
out, and Stanley enlisted in the Dixie Greys on the side of 
the Southern planters, and in course of time was surprised 
and made a prisoner, and taken to Camp Douglas, near 
Chicago ; here hundreds were dying of dysentery, and sani- 
tary arrangements were primitive. 

In 1862 Stanley was discharged, and took ship for 
Liverpool. He made his way to Denbigh and called on his 
mother, who desired him to leave at once, as he was a 
disgrace to his family ! 

These rebuffs seemed to make Stanley still more reserved. 
He returned to America, and enlisted in the United States 
navy. His letters to the papers describing the attacks on 
Fort Fisher opened out to him a career as journalist. His 
first great journey was to Smyrna, where Turcomans robbed 
him ; then he was sent to join an expedition against Red 
Indians — his first lesson in dealing with savage races. 

Then in 1868 he went to New York, and offered him- 
self to the Herald for the English campaign in Abyssinia. 

146 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

He was accepted, but had to pay his own passage to 
Abyssinia ; this took 300 dollars, half his savings ! 

He arrived with letters of introduction from Grant and 
Sherman, and got on well with the other correspondents ; 
in the end, it was Stanley's despatch that first informed 
London of Theodore's death. From that time his fame as 
a journalist was established. 

Being ordered to Spain to interview General Prim, he 
went, but received a telegram instructing him to try and 
find Livingstone. He reached Aden on November 21, 1868, 
but could hear no tidings of Livingstone. So back to Spain 
in time to see an insurrection, having a carte-blanche at the 
banker's, and license to travel whither he liked. 

In October 1869, Mr. Bennett, the Herald editor, sum- 
moned him to Paris — he was to search for Livingstone in 
Central Africa ! But first he was to visit the Caucasus and 
Persia. By December 1870 he found himself at Zanzibar 
without letters or money from Bennett. Captain Webb, the 
American consul, advanced Stanley sufficient to begin on. 
He started from Zanzibar on the 21st of March 1871, with 
three white men, thirty-one armed freemen of Zanzibar, 
153 porters, and twenty-seven pack animals, besides two 
riding horses. 

Bales of cloth and loads of beads and wire served as 
money ; but in passing through the malarious coast region 
he lost many followers. He says in his journal how years of 
selfish hustling among politiciansJ»&d hardened and estranged 
him from religious feelings, but when he came face to face 
with nature and solitude the old familiar dependence upon 
the Divine reasserted itself. 

In May they ascended the Usagara range, and fell in 
with the natives of Ugogo, " a bumptious, full-chested 
square-shouldered people, who exact heavy tribute from all 
caravans." After them came a fighting race, the Unyam- 
wezi, amongst whom were Arab traders. These Stanley 

147 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

questioned about Livingstone, but no one had heard of him. 
Then a tribal war broke out, and most of his caravan fled. 
After a time he assembled other porters, and turning south- 
west made for an Arab port on Lake Tanganyika. On his way 
thither he heard of an old white man having come to Ujiji 
from the west. It might be Sir Samuel Baker, but he was 
not grey-bearded. The belief that it was Livingstone urged 
him on. 

But the Wahha tribe were demanding an extortionate 
tribute ; so, rising in the night, Stanley led his men secretly 
to a more kindly chief. He told Stanley it was only six 
hours 1 march to Ujiji, and he too had heard of the old white 
man. They started very early, and at 8 a.m. saw from a 
wooded hill a large mirror of light — it was the lake ! The 
faces of his black porters beamed with delight, for the lake 
meant to them a rest from their burdens. 

Canoes were rocking lazily on the dimpled water — they 
could soon hear the sound of the waves breaking on the 
pebbles — and there was the little town, and the brown path 
curving down towards it. 

Stanley's people clothed themselves in white and folded 
white cloths round their heads, and fired their salutes in due 
and proper order. At once the town burst into life ; groups 
of white-dressed men sallied out with guns, in case an enemy 
should be coming. " Who are you ? " they shouted. " Ah ! 
a white man's caravan ! " 

Then they pressed round with shouts of welcome and 
many salaams, and Stanley's heart beat fast, for he was 
wondering to himself if the old man could possibly be the 
one he was seeking. Just then a tall, black man in long 
white shirt burst through the crowd on Stanley's right, and 
said in excellent English — 

" Good-morning, sir." 

" Why ! who are you ? " asked Stanley. 

"lam Susi, sir, the servant of Dr. Livingstone." 
148 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

" What ! is Dr. Livingstone in this town ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" But — are you sure — sure that it is Dr. Livingstone ? " 

" Why ! I leave him just now, sir." 

"Then run and tell the doctor of my coming. " 

Susi ran off forthwith, and the column followed, attended 
by joyous crowds. They reached the market-place, and saw 
Arab chiefs gathered in a group to await the white man ; 
and in their midst they saw an elderly white man clad in a 
red flannel blouse, grey trousers, and a blue cap with a gold 
band round it. 

Stanley felt a great doubt assailing him ; it seemed 
almost too good to be true, if this really was Dr. Livingstone 
the object of his search. So he walked up calmly, took off 
his helmet, bowed, and asked briefly — 

" Dr. Livingstone, I presume ? " 

The old man smiled, lifted his cap, and answered simply, 
" Yes." 

Then the Welsh blood flew into the explorer's face, and 
he said with emotion, " I thank God, doctor, that I have 
been permitted to see you." 

They grasped each other's hands, and the doctor replied 
gravely, " I feel more thankful that I am here to welcome you." 

It was a dramatic surprise for both of them ; we cannot 
linger further over this episode. 

Enough to say that the missionary felt it his duty to 
stay and complete his work in Africa, and Stanley, leaving 
him what he needed, was back in Zanzibar in fifty-four days. 
Eight months later death took Livingstone away from his 
uncompleted task. 

When Stanley arrived in England, he found that the 
relatives who had before thought him a disgrace were sing- 
ing a different tune. There were meetings, and lectures, and 
immense praise. The Queen sent him, by Lord Granville, 
a note of congratulation and a gold snuff-box set with 

149 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

diamonds, and later he was presented to her Majesty. Then 
he lectured in America in 1872. Again, in 1873-4, he went 
on the British campaign against the Ashantees. 

As he was on his way home he heard of the death of 
Livingstone, and at once the thought leapt up in his heart, 
" I will try and finish that man's task." So, shortly after 
the burial of Livingstone in Westminster Abbey, Stanley 
walked to the office of the Daily Telegraph, and suggested 
to Mr. Lawson that it would be a good thing to continue 
the African explorations. After some thinking over it, 
Lawson said, " I will cable over to Bennett of the New York 
Herald, and ask if he will join us." 

The answer came full soon : "Yes. Bennett." 

So to Zanzibar once more, and all the turmoil of getting 
ready had to be endured, and then the old journey west — 
with heat, and hunger, and exhaustion. 

In January 1875 they were in the land of Ituru. Many 
were sick and dying, and the savages were angry and 
menaced their camp. 

" Master, you had better prepare : there is no peace with 
these people." 

Stanley ordered twenty rounds of cartridges per man, and 
soon after arrows came flying and a rush was made at the 
gate of the camp. They were repulsed with a loss of only 
two of Stanley's men. 

Next day two thousand naked savages attacked, but fell 
back before a deadly fire. This time twenty-two were killed 
and three wounded. 

The third day they came again in greater numbers, and 
were again defeated. But Stanley had lost a fourth of his 
effective force, and had now to burn some of his baggage. 
The cedar boat, which required thirty men, he still carried on. 

By the 26th of January they were in the friendly land of 
Usukuma, where grassy vales and gentle hills welcomed them, 
and the natives cried, " Come again." 

150 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

Thus they drew near to the shores of the Victoria Nyanza, 
which Speke had visited sixteen years before and pronounced 
to be the source of the Nile. 

Stanley had brought his boat in order to sail round this 
lake and settle the question. 

His men were afraid of the water, and with difficulty he 
selected eleven, who thought it equivalent to certain death, 
and feared equally the waves, the chasing hippos and 
crocodiles, and the war canoes that came out from port and 
bay to defy them. Sometimes an elephant-gun was needed 
to sink one that came too near. 

The Emperor of Uganda sent a flotilla to invite the 
white man, and Stanley was brought into the presence of the 
tall, clean-faced, large-eyed M'tesa. 

They made friends ; Stanley showed off his shooting 
powers, and M'tesa seemed very interested in questions of 
religion. 

Stanley translated the Gospel of St. Luke for him, and 
one day M'tesa called together his chiefs, and after a long 
discourse on religion, said — 

" Now, I want you, my chiefs and soldiers, to tell me what 
we shall do. Shall we believe in Jesus, or in Mohammed ? " 

The verdict was given in favour of the white man's book 
simply because the white men whom they had known were 
better men than the Arabs. 

On leaving Uganda, Stanley set himself to discover if 
the Lualaba River was the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. 
Livingstone always thought it was the Nile. Accordingly; 
Stanley crossed Lake Tanganyika, carried his boat to the Lua- 
laba, and made for Tippu-Tib, an Arab chief and slave-dealer. 

After some haggling Tippu consented to lend seven 
hundred carriers for ^1000 ; a straight line from where they 
were to the Atlantic would be about 1070 miles. 

At first it was marching through forest — a solemn twilight 
prevailed under the giant trees, a vapoury rain trickled from 

151 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

the foliage, the ground was often wet and slushy, and it was 
terribly hot and relaxing. 

After ten days the Arabs said they could go no further : 
" ^500 for twenty marches more ? " They agreed. Soon 
they came upon the river, put the boat together and glided 
down, easily beating those on foot. 

The natives were all hostile, beat drums at every curve of 
the river, and shot reed arrows tipped with poison ; while 
crocodiles awaited them with a smile. 

There were skirmishes, and chases, and capturing of 
canoes — others were bought ; and when Tippu's people left 
him, Stanley was able to embark all his own boys. 

The parrots screamed, and the baboons howled and 
barked as they drifted down, and faces of hate peered 
through jungle and undergrowth. 

They reached the Stanley Falls — seven cataracts — drove 
away hosts of savage natives, and embarked again. 

The river had only brought them sixty miles to the west 
in a journey of four hundred miles — it might yet be the 
Nile ? It was nearly a mile wide. 

But presently the Lualaba flows into another river 
equally broad, but filled with the canoes of dusky warriors, 
gay with parrot feathers. 

The foremost craft has eighty paddlers standing in two 
rows, and young warriors at the bow and stern, whose arms 
are ringed with ivory bracelets. 

It races up, spears are poised, a war-song is chanted ; 
but the rifles crack, and down go the paddlers. It is magic ! 
they turn and retreat. Stanley, whose blood was up, landed 
his men, burnt their villages, and sank their canoes. 

As they went down, the river became wider, and curved 
to the south-west. It must be the Congo, he thought. There 
were islands now to screen them from the enemy ; but rapid 
followed rapid, canoes sank and men were drowned. But on 
they toiled desperately, with fever and famine near at hand. 

152 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

After a time they resumed their overland march in a 
country whose people asked for gin — oh ! they were drawing 
near to civilisation ! — and who had only pea-nuts and bananas 
to offer. Stanley's men were now weak and lean, full of 
ulcers and scurvy ; but they staggered on and reached Boma 
on the 9th of August 1877. 

European merchants welcomed him : " You have done 
right well ! all across Africa from east to west ! " But 
Stanley, amid the congratulations, could think most of his 
lost friends. " Grateful as I felt to Him who had enabled 
me to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, my heart 
was charged with grief, and my eyes with tears, at the 
thought of the many comrades I had lost." 

He showed that this was no idle sentiment by himself 
accompanying his followers round the Cape of Good Hope to 
Zanzibar in a three weeks 1 voyage. He loved to watch the 
welcome they received from friends and kinsmen. 

" For years and years to come," he writes in his journal, 
" there will be told the great story of our journey, and the 
actors in it will be heroes among their kith and kin. For 
me, too, they are heroes, these poor, ignorant children of 
Africa ; for ... in the hour of need they had never 
failed me. 11 

Stanley came back to England burning with a philan- 
thropic desire to improve the manners and welfare of the 
naked savages he had seen. To explore was not enough for 
him ; he believed that, through the Congo, trade, education, 
and religion might be introduced ; but though he spoke in 
many of our large cities of the good to be done and the 
profits to be made, neither Government nor people were 
inclined to lend an ear. 

But Leopold, King of Belgium, saw the great possibilities, 
and invited Stanley to Brussels. This was the beginning of 
the great Congo Free State, which has not been managed 
very kindly for the natives. 

153 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

So, two years after leaving the Congo, Stanley was there 
again, with the intent to civilise, make roads, plant stations, 
and build towns. Fever, however, attacked him so violently 
that he had to return in 1882 for six weeks 1 " change " ; and 
when he went back to his work he found much of it in ruins, 
duties neglected by the young Belgian officers, and the 
natives made hostile. He set to work again, and made 
treaties with more than four hundred chiefs ; for Stanley 
they could trust. They had had time to learn that he 
meant their good, that he was not as the Arab, who came 
to plunder, kill, and enslave. 

When Stanley had rushed down the Congo on his first 
journey — and he was obliged to go quickly or his cloth and 
beads would not have held out — the whole country was up in 
arms against him ; but on he went, repelling force by force. 

When Speke and Thomson travelled through Africa, they 
were sometimes detained weeks before an African village, 
sitting still and waiting for leave to pass through the chief's 
dominions. 

Amongst the officers under Stanley who honourably did 
their duty we may mention Binnie, a Scots engineer at 
Stanley Falls ; the Danish sailor, Albert Christopherson ; 
the Scandinavian, Anderson ; and A. B. Swinburne, the 
Englishman. 

The founding of the Free State put the coping-stone on 
Stanley's character. There he was philanthropist, general, 
governor, missionary. So hard did he work that the native 
followers called him " Bula Matari " (the Breaker of Rocks). 

His next enterprise was to rescue Emin Pasha, on which 
we have a chapter to itself. We will only briefly give the 
end of Emin's career. When Stanley had brought him 
safely back to the East Coast, the Pasha took service with the 
German Government. But in a few months he had lost the 
respect of his own people, and had been ordered to give up 
his post. Instead of obeying, he went west, plunged into 

154 




z 



T(i!ig - l r (Sin^<» t^_ i '■» 



Amazon Warriors 

The bodyguard of the King of Dahomey. 



THE GREAT DISCOVERER 

the great forest, took an Arab guide, Ismaili, and had almost 
reached Stanley Falls, when he met an Arab who had a 
grudge against him. Emin Pasha, the gentle botanist, the 
governor who knew not how to govern, was thrown down and 
beheaded there and then by the Arab sword. 

In 1892 Sir George Grey wrote to Stanley from Auck- 
land about his Emin relief, commending his great services, 
and he ends thus : " You led your people to a port of safety 
without reward and without promotion or recognition from 
your country. I have thought over all history, but I cannot 
call to mind a greater task than you have performed. It is 
not an exploration alone you have accomplished ; it is also a 
great military movement, by which those who were in the 
British service were rescued from a position of great peril." 

Sidney Low, in the Cornhill Magazine for July 1904, 
writes : " There was never the smallest justification for repre- 
senting Stanley as a ruthless, iron-handed kind of privateer, 
who used the scourge and the bullet with callous reckless- 
ness ... he would shoot, if there seemed no other means of 
gaining the end ... he was essentially a humane man, master- 
ful and domineering, and yet a fond, gentle, and kindly, 
particularly to the weak and suffering. . . . He had the Welsh 
peasant's quickness of temper, his warmth of affection, his 
resentfulness when wronged, his pugnacity and code of 
ethics. . . . Short of stature, lean and wiry, with a brown 
face, a strong chin, a square, Napoleonic head and noticeable 
eyes — round, lion-like eyes — he was a striking and attractive 
personality. " To this we may add that his young manhood 
spent in America may have given him a greater confidence 
in himself and a stronger self-assertion than is generally 
found amongst Europeans. This may have caused some of 
the envious and malignant criticisms which met him after 
one of his successful campaigns in Africa. It was only 
gradually that England learnt the real grit and genuine- 
ness of his reserved character, as well as the depth of feeling 

155 



SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B. 

that lay underneath it all. In July 1890, Sir Henry Stanley, 
G.C.B., was married to Dorothy Tennant, a lady beautiful 
and of high artistic ability ; under her direction his mar- 
vellous Autobiography has been ably produced. 

Sir Henry entered Parliament in 1895, but he was a 
man of action, and the tiresome babble of parties interested 
him not. 

In 1904 he fell ill of pleurisy. On the night of 9th May, 
in his mental wanderings he murmured, "I have done all 
my work — I have circumnavigated. . . . Oh ! I want to be 
free ! I want to go into the woods — to be free." He left 
one son, Denzil. 

The funeral service was read in Westminster Abbey, but 
he was buried in the village churchyard of Pirbright, Surrey. 

We will just quote Stanley's opinion about Gordon at 
Khartoum, because it shows the great self-confidence in the 
man who would not fail when it was his duty to succeed. 

" I have often wondered at Gordon ; in his place I should 
have acted differently. It was optional with Gordon to live 
or die : he preferred to die ; I should have lived, if only to 
get the better of the Mahdi. 

" I maintain that to live is harder and nobler than to 
die ; to bear life's burdens, suffer its sorrows, endure its 
agonies, is the greater heroism. ... No Mahdist should have 
got at me or my garrison ! ... As a last resource, there 
was the Nile. My one idea would have been to carry out 
what I had undertaken to do, without any outside help. If 
I had gone to Khartoum to rescue the garrison, the garrison 
would have been rescued ! . . . But he was a true hero and 
died nobly ! That silences one. Nevertheless, I hold that 
Gordon need not have died ! " * 

i From the Autobiography, by kind permission of Lady Stanley. 



156 



PART II 

HEROES OF SEA AND LAND 



CHAPTER IX 

ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

OUR first hero amongst soldiers and sailors who have 
been engaged in Africa shall be Edward Pellew, 
Viscount Exmouth, who was descended from a 
Cornish family originally of Norman lineage. The name 
in Normandy was spelt Pelleu. The family had property 
in Mount's Bay. Edward's great-grandfather served in the 
English navy and fought many battles ; his grandfather 
was a merchant and owned a tobacco plantation in Kent 
Island, Maryland, which was lost at the revolt of the 
Colonies from England. The tradition of loyalty to the 
king remained a characteristic of the Pellews, and was the 
cause of their losses. The Admiral's father commanded 
a post-office packet on the Dover station, and it was his 
practice to make his children drink the king's health on 
their knees every Sunday. 

His mother was Constance Langford, a woman of great 
spirit and energy. Our hero was born at Dover in 1757 ; 
before he was eight years old he lost his father, and his 
mother took her six children to Penzance. Here Edward, 
when only ten years old, distinguished himself by entering a 
burning house in which was a store of gunpowder and bring- 
ing it all out ; a crowd of men who had not dared to do this 
deed looked on in wonder. Sent to the Grammar School at 
Truro, he was to be flogged for fighting a bigger boy rather 
too fiercely. 

" Flogged for fighting ! Nay, I'll not stand that anyhow." 
159 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

Accordingly the indignant boy ran away, and asked his 
mother to let him go to sea, as so many of his ancestors 
had done. 

So in 1770 he entered the navy, and served first in the 
Juno, which was ordered to the Falkland Islands, which had 
been forcibly seized by a Spanish squadron. 

We cannot follow in detail Pellew's many adventures. 
One of his first experiences was to go with a ship's party from 
the Blonde to retake from the Americans Lake Champlain, 
to the north-east of Ontario. 

His ship had to engage the whole force of the enemy 
single-handed, and she only carried twelve six-pounders. 

Her officers were killed and Pellew had to take the com- 
mand, and, by his bravery, brought his vessel away with two 
feet of water in her hold. An artillery boat took her in 
tow, but a shot cut the tow-rope. When Pellew ordered a 
man to go and secure it, he and the rest hung back, for the 
shore was near and full of the enemy's marksmen. Young 
midshipman Pellew sprang forward and spliced the rope him- 
self, having sunk the Boston and burnt the Royal Savage. 

This gallantry gained him a lieutenant's commission and 
the thanks of Admiral Howe. 

Edward's youngest brother, John, had come out to join 
the English army, unknown to the lieutenant, and one night 
the brothers met by accident. Edward was hailed on shore 
by a stranger. 

" Who comes here ? " cried Edward. 

" A friend." 

" What friend ? — tell who you are, or I'll shoot you." 

" What, don't you know my voice ? " said John. 

" No," said Edward, presenting his pistol. 

" Oh ! well, I'm thinking I'm your brother John ! " 

On Pellew's arrival in England he was at once promoted. 
Being now in his twenty-first year, tall and strong, and 

160 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

hardened by war, he saved more than one from drowning 
while waiting for a post. 

After some other service off the coast of France he was 
appointed commander of the Hazard, a worn-out sloop, 
in July 1780 ; later he took command of the Pelican and 
captured some privateers, for which he was made post- 
captain. In 1783 he married Miss Frowd of Wiltshire, 
and lived a short time at Truro. Then he commanded 
the Winchelsea frigate for the Newfoundland station, and 
astonished his crew by climbing to parts of the rigging in 
a gale when they hesitated to do so. 

The men soon grew to admire and love him, for, as one 
said, " he never orders us to do what he won^t do himself ; 
blow high, blow low, he knows to an inch what the ship 
can do, and he can almost make her speak." Another says, 
" In every instance when a life was in danger, he was quick 
to peril his own for its preservation," and he gives many 
instances of such deeds in the sea. When peace left him 
idle, he tried to farm in Cornwall, for his family was in- 
creasing and his income diminishing. But in 1793 the 
French, after killing their king, declared war on England, 
and Pellew was appointed to the Nymphe, of thirty-six guns, 
formerly a French frigate. This ship he manned with eighty 
Cornish miners, who had to be taught seamanship. He 
met the Cleopatra, and boarding her through her main-deck 
ports soon took the vessel and got possession of the signals, 
which he sent to the Admiralty. In a letter to his brother, 
Pellew writes : " Thank God ! safe, after a glorious action 
with la CUopdtre, forty guns and 320 men. We dished her 
up in fifty minutes, boarded and struck her colours ; we 
have suffered much, and must go into harbour." 

The king sent for him and knighted him, then presenting 
him to the queen, said, " This is our friend, the royalist who 
took the first republican frigate in the war." 

161 L 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

In 1796, while he was driving to dinner with Dr. Hawker 
at Plymouth, Sir Edward noticed crowds running past the 
carriage towards the Hoe. He asked the cause. The Dutton^ 
a big East-Indiaman, full of troops for the West Indies, had 
lost her rudder and had drifted under the citadel, where she 
lay rolling heavily, her masts gone by the board. In a 
moment he sprang out of his carriage and ran to the beach ; 
he found that the officers had deserted the ship, and some 
600 men were in danger of being drowned. 

Sir Edward urged the officers to return to their charge ; 
they shook their heads. He offered to reward any pilots to 
board the wreck. " No, sir, it's too hazardous ! " " Then 
I will go myself. " There was just one rope from the ship 
to the shore, and by this he hauled himself through the 
waves, gained the deck, shouted, " I am Sir Edward Pellew. 
I can save you if you will obey my orders. I will run any 
one through who disobeys my orders.'" The despairing mob 
of soldiers and sailors gave three cheers, and set to work to 
pass hawsers and sling cradles, while their new leader stood 
by with sword drawn. Women and children first were 
saved, and then the soldiers and the whole ship's company, 
just before the wreck went to pieces. Sir Edward made no 
mention of his doings in his despatch, but the citizens of 
Plymouth voted him the freedom of the town, Liverpool 
presented him with a service of plate, and soon after he was 
created a baronet, Sir Edward Pellew of Treverry, with a 
stranded ship for a crest. 

We have given enough instances to prove what manner 
of man Lord Exmouth was. " Lucky " his rivals called him, 
but his country and his king knew that his successes were the 
results of character. In dealing with a crew he was both 
severely strict and kind even to indulgence ; very atten- 
tive to the men's wants and habits, a promoter of dancing 
and sports. He never hesitated at a crisis, and used to 

162 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

say with a laugh, "I never had a second thought worth 
sixpence." 

He promoted his midshipmen for merit, and not for 
their high rank, and he took care they were well taught 
and well cared for. 

In 1799 the grievances of the men in the fleets began to 
to be serious, and mutiny was abroad. There were gross 
abuses, for everything was supplied by contract ; little check 
was kept on the contractor, who furnished inferior and often 
diseased food at high prices, hence scurvy raged amongst 
the seamen. Prize-money melted away mysteriously as it 
passed through the offices, and the purser kept much of the 
men's allowance. At first the men tried to sue by petition ; 
no notice was taken, and they then urged their demands 
firmly but respectfully. Still the people in authority neg- 
lected their claims, and the men at Spithead mutinied, and 
afterwards some ships' crews at Plymouth. Sir Edward 
prepared for the worst, and when one morning his lieutenant 
complained that the men were sulky and would not go 
round with the captain, he came forward, drew his sword, 
and ordered his officers to follow his example. u You can 
never die so well," he said, " as on your own deck quelling a 
mutiny ; so now, if a man hesitate to obey you, cut him 
down without a word." The crew at once returned to their 
duties, and the Indefatigable was soon under sail. Shortly 
after he saved the fleet in Bantry Bay from mutiny by his 
prompt measures. 

In 1805 Sir Edward was made Rear- Admiral of the 
White and appointed Commander-in-Chief in India, and 
earned the thanks of the underwriters of Bombay for his 
excellent protection of the merchant navy. 

In 1811 he was made Commander-in-Chief in the 
Mediterranean, and did not lose a single vessel by capture 
in three years, though he was blockading the French fleet 

163 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

at Toulon ; in fact, through twenty years of command in 
war, no vessel under his orders was ever taken. At the end 
of the war with France, Sir Edward was created Baron 
Exmouth of Canon Teign, an estate he had in South Devon ; 
next year he was made Knight Commander of the Order of 
the Bath, to his great surprise. He spent a few months 
in England, when the news came that Napoleon had escaped 
from Elba, and he was sent again to the Mediterranean. 

In 1816 Lord Exmouth was ordered to sail to the Barbary 
ports and claim the release (by paying ransom) of all the 
Ionian slaves, now become British subjects ; for nearly all 
Europe had suffered from the cruelty of these pirates. 
Before approaching Algiers, Lord Exmouth sent Captain 
Warde, of the Banterer, to observe the harbour and defences, 
to make maps and take soundings. This was carefully done, 
and old maps were rectified. In a general order to his 
squadron the Commander-in-Chief explained that he was 
instructed to proceed to Algiers, and there make arrange- 
ments for diminishing the piracy of the Barbary States, 
"by which thousands of our fellow-creatures, innocently 
following their commercial pursuits, have been dragged 
into the most wretched and revolting state of slavery." 
The squadron went to Algiers and obtained the objects of 
their mission ; they then proceeded to Tunis and Tripoli, 
and their demands were allowed. Meanwhile Lord Exmouth 
had been instructed to claim from Algiers the privilege of 
selling prizes and refitting privateers in that port, and in 
doing this he took the opportunity to press the abolition of 
Christian slavery. But this demand the Dey refused, when 
Lord Exmouth declared that if he persisted in his refusal 
he would take the place with five line-of-battle ships. 

On leaving the harbour Lord Exmouth and his retinue 
were mobbed and in danger of being killed ; Captains 
Pechell and Warde were dragged off their horses and 

164 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

marched through the town, their hands tied behind them. 
However, the Dey promised to send an ambassador to 
England to treat on these questions, and the fleet retired. 

In the English Parliament a member had denounced the 
terms made with Algiers, because by ransoming the slaves 
we virtually acknowledged the right of these pirates to 
enslave and plunder. He proved how, in one case, out of 
three hundred prisoners, fifty had died of ill-treatment on 
the first day of their arrival, and seventy during the first 
fortnight. The prisoners were allowed only a pound of 
bread a day, and were subject to the lash from morning 
to night, neither sex nor age being spared. A Neapolitan 
lady of distinction, who had been carried off with her eight 
children, was now in her thirteenth year of captivity. 

Lord Exmouth had not yet reached England when the 
news came to London that on the 23rd of May the crews 
of the coral-fishing vessels at Bona had landed to attend 
Mass, it being Ascension Day, when they were attacked and 
barbarously massacred. 

The British Government concluded that it was high time 
these miscreants, the enemies of all peaceable nations, should 
be rendered impotent for farther crime of this sort, and they 
ordered Lord Exmouth to complete his work with any force 
he required. 

" Five battleships," was that hero's modest request. 

Five ships ! but Nelson had suggested twenty-five ! for 
there were powerful batteries all round the harbour, the 
walls were thick and the guns heavy. There was a pier, 
three hundred yards long, built from a point about a 
quarter of a mile from the north end of the town. From 
the end of the pier a mole was carried, which was curved in 
a south-westerly direction towards the town. Opposite the 
mole-head was a small insulated pier, leaving the entrance 
to the harbour about a hundred and twenty yards wide. 

165 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

Beyond the pier-head stood the lighthouse battery, a 
circular fort, with fifty guns in three tiers. The mole 
itself was filled with cannon in two tiers, like the side of 
a battleship. In all there were 220 guns in these batteries, 
while on the sea-wall of the town were nine batteries, and 
along the shore other forts and batteries, making a defensive 
armament of about 500 guns in all on the sea side. 

Five sail of the line ! It seemed incredible ! 

But Lord Exmouth adhered to his first demand, and 
explained how he should post his ships ; the Admiralty 
allowed him to act on his own judgment, though many 
officers shrugged their shoulders in doubt. 

As he was going down channel Lord Exmouth said to 
his brother, " If they open fire when our ships are coming 
up and cripple them in the masts, the difficulty and loss will 
be greater : but if they allow us to take our stations, I am 
sure of them ; for I know that nothing can resist a line-of- 
battle ship's fire.'" 

He embarked in the Queen Charlotte with Sir Charles 
Penrose, second in command, and the ships were manned 
with volunteers ; this made his difficulties greater, for it 
usually takes two months to render a ship effective with 
a strange crew on board. 

Amongst the volunteers were a number of smugglers who 
had been taken on the West Coast and sentenced to five years"' 
service in the navy. These behaved so well in the battle that 
Lord Exmouth obtained their discharge from the Admiralty. 

In addition to the five line-of-battle ships, the force 
included three heavy frigates and two small ones, four 
bomb-vessels and five gun-brigs. 

Four of the battleships were to destroy the fortifications 
on the mole, while the fifth covered them from the batteries 
south of the town, and the heavy frigates from those on the 

town wall. 

166 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

The bomb-vessels were to fire on the arsenal and the 
town, helped by a flotilla of the ships' launches, fitted as 
rocket and mortar boats. 

They sailed from Plymouth Sound on the 28th of July, 
and through all the passage the utmost care was taken to 
train the crews. 

Every day they were exercised at the guns upon an 
extemporised target, and every day their fire became 
more accurate. 

At Gibraltar they found a Dutch squadron of five 
frigates and a corvette commanded by Vice- Admiral Von 
da Capellan. 

This gentleman begged earnestly to be allowed to co- 
operate with the British squadron, and was permitted. 

The ships were ready to sail on the 12th of August, but 
a strong easterly wind kept them at Gibraltar two days. 

Every ship received a plan of the fortifications and full 
instructions as to position and duties. The Dutch were 
now assigned the duty of attacking the batteries south of 
the town. 

On the evening of the 16th, when they were within two 
hundred miles of Algiers, the ship-sloop Prometheus, Captain 
Dashwood, joined them direct from Algiers, bringing the 
news that the Algerines were making great preparations to 
meet the attack. Forty thousand troops had been assembled, 
and four frigates, five large corvettes, and thirty-seven gun- 
boats were collected in the harbour. 

The Prometheus had brought the wife and daughter of 
Mr. M'Donell, the British consul, disguised as midship- 
men ; the consul was confined, by the Dey's orders, in irons 
at his house. 

Owing to head-winds the fleet did not make Cape 
Cazzina, the northern point of the bay of Algiers, until 
noon of the 26th. 

167 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

Next day, as the ships lay nearly becalmed, Lord 
Exmouth sent Lieutenant Burgess in one of the Queen 
Charlotte's boats under a flag of truce with the terms 
dictated by the Prince Regent. She was met outside the 
mole by the captain of the port, who promised an answer 
in two hours. Meanwhile a breeze sprung up from the 
sea, the fleet stood into the bay and lay-to about a mile 
from the town. At two o'clock the boat was seen return- 
ing, with the signal that no answer had been given. 

Then the Queen Charlotte telegraphed to the fleet, " Are 
you ready ? " Every ship displayed the signal " All ready." 

So the Queen Charlotte led to the attack. Lord 
Exmouth had intended not to reply to the enemy's fire 
in bearing down, unless it should prove very galling ; but 
the Algerines, confident in the strength of their defences, 
foolishly reserved their fire. They expected also to carry 
the flag-ship by boarding her from the gun-boats, which were 
all filled with men armed with pikes and cutlasses. 

At half-past two the Queen Charlotte anchored by the 
stern, half a cable's length from the mole-head, and was 
lashed by a hawser to the main-mast of an Algerine brig. 
The mole was crowded with troops, many of whom got upon 
the parapet to stare at the ship. Lord Exmouth, standing 
on the poop, could not refrain from waving to them to move 
away. 

When the ship was fairly placed the crew gave three 
hearty cheers, and as the last died away the enemy fired 
three guns in succession. One of the shots struck the Superb. 

" Stand by ! " shouted Lord Exmouth. A second later 
came "Fire!" 

That first broadside killed above five hundred men, the 
Swedish consul assured the Admiral, for the troops were 
drawn up four deep above the gun-boats. 

What the Admiral's feelings were we can perceive from 

168 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

his despatch, in which he writes : " The battle was fairly at 
issue between a handful of Britons, in the noble cause of 
Christianity, and a horde of fanatics, assembled around their 
city to obey the dictates of their despot. The cause of God 
and humanity prevailed ; and so devoted was every creature 
in the fleet, that even British women served at the same guns 
with their husbands, and during a contest of many hours 
never shrank from danger, but animated all around them. ,, 

If this strange episode of British wives fighting on board 
a man-of-war had not been given on the authority of Lord 
Exmouth himself, it would have been thought incredible. 
They not only served the guns bravely, but by their example 
animated the men to fresh exertions. 

When the Queen Charlotte fired her first broadside, only 
the Leander had taken her station in the line ; the large 
frigates and the Dutch squadron went into action under a very 
heavy fire, and " with a gallantry that never was surpassed." 

The bomb-vessels at a distance of 2000 yards were 
throwing shells with admirable precision, while the flotilla 
of rocket-boats were distributed at the openings between the 
battleships. 

In a few minutes the Queen Charlotte had ruined the 
fortifications on the mole-head. She then sprang her broad- 
side towards the north, to bear upon the batteries over the 
gate leading to the mole and upon the upper works of the 
lighthouse. 

Her shot struck with such accuracy that the tower of 
the lighthouse crumbled and fell, bringing down gun after 
gun from the batteries. 

The last of these guns was dismounted just as the 
Algerine artillerymen were in the act of discharging it. 
Instantly a chief was seen to spring upon the ruins of the 
parapet and shake his scimitar in impotent fury against the 
British ships. 

169 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

Soon after the battle began, the enemy's flotilla of gun- 
boats daringly advanced to board the Queen Charlotte and 
Lea?ider. 

At first they were not noticed, for the smoke from the 
firing covered them from view, but as soon as they were seen 
a few shots, chiefly from the Leander, sent to the bottom 
thirty-three out of the thirty-seven. 

At four o'clock, when a general fire had been maintained 
for more than an hour, and no sign of submission was visible, 
Lord Exmouth ordered Lieutenant Richards to take the 
barge and fire the enemy's ships. This he did with labora- 
tory torches and a carcass-shell placed on their main-deck, 
and the frigate at once burst into flames. 

Lord Exmouth was watching the barge's movements 
from the gangway, and when she returned he led the cheers 
that welcomed her back. It was hoped that the flames 
would spread to the other Algerine shipping ; but the 
frigate burnt from her moorings and drifted along the broad- 
sides of the Queen Charlotte and Leander. In a letter to his 
brother Lord Exmouth wrote : " Never was a ship nearer 
burnt ; it almost scorched me off the poop ; we were obliged 
to haul in the ensign or it would have caught fire." 

They then opened with carcass-shells upon the largest 
frigate, which was moored in the centre of the other ships ; 
she soon took fire, and by six o'clock was completely in 
flames. From her the fire spread to the other vessels in the 
port, and afterwards to the store-houses and arsenal. 

About sunset a message was received from Rear- Admiral 
Milne, requesting that a frigate might be sent to divert 
from the Impregnable some of the fire under which she was 
suffering. As it was found impossible to assist her, per- 
mission was given to haul off, for she was dreadfully cut up ; 
a hundred and fifty men had been killed and wounded, and 
the shot was still coming in fast from the heaviest batteries. 

170 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

But her officers and crew would not thus go out of battle, and 
she kept up a vigorous fire to the last. 

As night came on the fire slackened, for the expenditure 
of ammunition had been beyond all parallel. They had 
fired 118 tons of powder and 50,000 shot, besides 960 
thirteen- and ten-inch shells ; the sea-defences of Algiers 
were shattered and crumbling to ruins. 

At a little before ten the Queen Charlotte "s bower-cable 
was cut, and her head hauled round to seaward. Warps 
were run out to gain an offing, but many were cut by shot 
from the south batteries. At half-past ten a light air was 
felt and sail was made, but only by the help of tow-boats 
was the ship got slowly away. At half-past eleven the 
breeze freshened and a thunderstorm broke, with torrents 
of rain. 

In a private letter the Admiral wrote : "I was quite 
sure I should have a breeze off the land about one or two in 
the morning ; and equally sure we could hold out that time. 
Blessed be God ! it came, and a dreadful night with it of 
thunder, lightning, and rain, as heavy as I ever saw. Several 
ships had spent all their powder and been supplied from the 
brigs ... it is the opinion of all the consuls that two 
hours more fire would have levelled the town ; the walls are 
all so cracked. Even the aqueducts were broken up, and 
the people famishing for water ; the fire all round the mole 
looked like pandemonium. I never saw anything so grand 
and so terrific." 

In about three hours the storm subsided. As soon as 
the ship was made snug, Lord Exmouth assembled in his 
cabin the officers and some of the wounded that they might 
unite with him in offering thanks to God for their victory 
and preservation. 

"Admiral Milne came on board at two o'clock in the 
morning and kissed my hand fifty times before the people ; 

171 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

so did the Dutch Admiral, Von Capellan, and generously 
said that the Queen Charlotte, by her commanding position 
and the effect of her fire, had saved the lives of five hundred 
men to the fleet. I was but slightly touched in thigh, face, 
and fingers, my glass cut in my hand, and the skirts of my 
coat torn off by a large shot ; but as I bled a good deal, it 
looked as if I was badly hurt, and it was gratifying to see 
and hear how it was received even in the cockpit, which was 
then pretty full. I never saw such enthusiasm in all my 
service, and I assure you it was a very arduous task." 

In no former general action had the casualties been so 
great in proportion to the force engaged. One hundred 
and twenty-eight were killed and six hundred and ninety 
wounded in the British ships ; thirteen were killed and 
fifty-two wounded in the Dutch squadron. 

In this battle every ship was closely engaged through- 
out ; after the Impregnable, which had fifty men killed, the 
frigates suffered most. 

Next morning, August 28, 1816, Lieutenant Burgess 
was sent on shore with a flag of truce, and all the demands 
were allowed. 

Sir Charles Penrose, who had arrived from Malta too 
late to take part in the battle, was assigned the part of 
concluding the negotiations. 

On August 30th, Lord Exmouth informed the fleet of 
the happy termination of their strenuous exertions by the 
following conditions : — 

" 1. The abolition of Christian slavery for ever. 

" 2. The delivery to my flag of all slaves in the dominions 
of the Dey, to whatever nation they may belong, at noon 
to-morrow. 

" S. To deliver also to my flag all money received by him 
for the redemption of slaves since the commencement of this 
year. 

172 



THE HERO OF ALGIERS 

" 4. Reparation has been made to the British consul for 
all losses he has sustained in consequence of his confinement. 

u 5. The Dey has made a public apology in presence of 
his ministers and officers. " 

After thanking his men for their noble support the 
Commander-in-Chief appointed the following Sunday for 
a public thanksgiving to God. 

More than twelve hundred slaves were freed, and em- 
barked on the 31st, making, with those liberated a few 
weeks before, more than three thousand. 

These were sent to their respective countries — a happy 
crew rescued to their great surprise. Of these only eighteen 
were English, the most being from Naples and Sicily. 
Let us hope that other nations felt some measure of 
gratitude for the feat performed. 

The kings of Holland, Spain and Sardinia conferred 
upon Lord Exmouth orders of knighthood, and the Pope 
sent him a valuable cameo. 

London and Oxford voted him the freedom of their 
cities, and the day of his return to England was made 
a general holiday. 

Lord Melville in the House of Lords, in proposing a 
vote of thanks, spoke warmly of the help given by the 
Netherlands ; Lord Castlereagh said he was sure the House 
would feel a peculiar gratification in seeing the navy of 
Holland united with ours for the general liberties of 
mankind. 

The Dutch Admiral in his report wrote home : " His 
Majesty's squadron, as well as the British force, appeared 
to be inspired with the devotedness of our magnanimous 
chief to the cause of all mankind ; and the coolness and 
order with which the terrible fire of the batteries was 
replied to, close under the massive walls of Algiers, will 
as little admit of description as the heroism and self- 

173 



ADMIRAL VISCOUNT EXMOUTH 

devotion of each individual and the greatness of Lord 
Exmouth in the attack of this memorable day. . . . The 
Queen Charlotte, under the fire of the batteries, passing 
the Melampus under sail, his lordship asked to see me in 
order to reward me by shaking my hand in the heartiest 
manner and saying, ' I have not lost sight of my Dutch 
friends ; they have, as well as mine, done their best for the 
glory of the day.'" Lord Exmouth was made a Viscount 
for this great service, and was given the command at 
Plymouth : here his public life ended. But all his distinc- 
tions and honours made no difference in his character : he 
remained religious, simple, unselfish and benevolent to the 
last, and passed the quiet evening of his life on his estate 
near Teignmouth, happy in his family and their devoted 
affection. 



174 



CHAPTER X 

LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

ROBERT CORNELIUS NAPIER, the son of Major 
C. F. Napier, was born in 1810 in Ceylon, and edu- 
cated at the Military College, Addiscombe. 

He entered the corps of Royal Engineers in 1826, and 
having served with distinction in the Sutlej campaign was 
appointed engineer to the Durbar of Lahore. He was 
present at the siege of Mooltan and the battle of Gujerat. 

After this he was chief engineer in the Punjaub, and 
was busy cutting roads and canals in that province. In 
1857 he served under Sir Colin Campbell in the Mutiny 
and greatly distinguished himself. 

Further service in China under Sir Hope Grant ended in 
his being created a K.C.B., a Major-General, and member of 
the Council of India. 

In 1865 he became Commander-in-Chief in Bombay, 
and while he held this appointment he was ordered to 
take command of a force sent to liberate British captives 
detained by Theodore, Emperor of Abyssinia. 

Sir Robert Napier was at this time about fifty-five years 
old, stout and well-built. His expression was kindly and 
gentle, for soft blue eyes twinkled merrily upon you, and 
a constant smile played round his mouth, as he conversed 
with you. If he thought he was talking to a fool who 
needed a little putting-down, he would fall into a freezing 
politeness tinged with sarcasm ; but if he deemed that 
stronger measures were called for, the blue eyes could 

175 



LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

flash fire, and a sudden storm of wrath would clear the 
way before him. 

A few words of explanation are necessary before we 
proceed further. Theodore was the son of a poor widow, 
and his real name was Kussai. In his boyhood he had 
been haunted by the words of an old prophecy that a 
Messiah should arise and deliver Christian Abyssinia from 
the Moslems. He enlisted, distinguished himself for bravery 
and intelligence, married the daughter of Dembea's governor 
and became governor of a district. Little by little he grew 
popular and strong, changed his name to Todoros, as the 
natives pronounced Theodorus, and declared himself the 
Messiah. This had the effect of calling deserters from 
every province to join his standard ; by 1851 he had sub- 
jected nearly all Abyssinia. He was now about thirty-five 
years old, strong and brave and apt for war, adored by his 
officers and men, whom he armed well and trained carefully. 
He loved the open-air, and said, "I will have no capital; 
my head shall be the Empire, and my tent my capital. " 

At first he was a good ruler, seeking the interests of his 
people ; but frequent rebellions so harassed him that he 
grew embittered and tyrannical. He invited Russian and 
German engineers to make big guns and erect powder 
manufactories, for he had conceived the ambitious desire 
of conquering Egypt and Arabia. He was partly prompted 
to this by the cruel acts of Arabs and Egyptians in captur- 
ing his people and selling them for slaves to the pashas 
of Cairo, and Alexandria, and Constantinople. 

The British consul, Plowden, had been his great friend, 
and when he was killed in 1860 by some rebels, Theodore 
mourned for him and punished the rebels severely. Queen 
Victoria sent Theodore a revolver for his kindness to the 
consul, and on a silver plate was an inscription which 
afterwards identified his body at a critical time. 

176 



SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

The new consul, Captain Cameron, and several mission- 
aries arrived in 1862, and were at first well received and 
welcomed by the emperor. 

But Theodore was now often under the influence of 
drink, and began to practise great cruelties even upon 
innocent people. 

For a slight suspicion a man had his back flayed by the 
courbach, or his stomach ripped open, or was crucified ; no 
one was safe from his resentment. 

Consul Cameron induced Theodore to write a long letter 
to Queen Victoria, in which he offered to send ambassadors 
to England. Earl Russell received this letter in 1863, and 
thought no more of it. 

As no reply was sent to Abyssinia, the emperor natur- 
ally felt slighted, and vented his wrath on the consul and 
the missionaries and their servants. One, Mr. Stern, was 
beaten till he fainted. "Beat that man as you would a 
dog," roared Theodore. 

The captives were fed on bread and water, flogged, and 
chained to a wall. 

Cameron was also tortured. He says : " Twenty Abys- 
sinians were tugging lustily on ropes tied to each limb until 
I fainted. My shoulder-blades were made to meet each 
other. I was doubled up until my head appeared under my 
thighs, and while in this painful position I was beaten with 
whips of hippopotamus hide on my bare back until I was 
covered with weals, and while the blood dripped from my 
reeking back I was rolled in sand." 

In 1866 Lord Derby became Premier, Lord Stanley, 
his son, being Secretary of the Foreign Office. They pro- 
posed to ransom the captives ; Theodore refused to allow 
this. Then war was declared against a country so little 
known that the papers were full of warning letters. 

The army was to consist of 12,000 Indian troops from 

177 m 



LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

Bombay — Sepoy and European regiments mixed — and bag- 
gage animals were purchased in Egypt and Syria. 

Colonel Merewether was sent to survey the coast, and 
selected Annesley Bay, south of Massowah, as the most com- 
modious harbour to embark in. The distance from this port 
to Magdala, the capital, was nearly four hundred miles. 

Transports soon began to arrive in the bay, and thou- 
sands of mules, camels, and cattle were landed and turned 
loose ; they wandered in a waterless wilderness of juniper and 
banbool shrub, and many hundreds lay down to die ! 

At last it occurred to some officer to set the steamers at 
work to condense water for the poor brutes. More animals 
were bought and landed, but hundreds of drivers deserted 
with their cattle. Finally, soldiers were set to watch the 
coolies and Arab muleteers. 

Sir Charles Staveley, seeing this state of things near the 
coast, resolved to move higher and occupy Senafe, a village 
in the highlands, where there was said to be abundance of 
water and grass. Sappers had been sent on to make the 
road through the Pass of Koomaylee less difficult ; for it 
was merely an empty ravine, except in the rainy season, 
and choked with huge boulders and rocks. 

In two months after landing, Sir Robert Napier arrived, 
and things began to hum, as two locomotives expedited 
stores across the flat sands near the shore. After five 
hours 1 marching, the troops arrived at the base of the 
mountains. Fortunately a cleft opened out, whose sides 
were covered with brushwood and mosses, and this led them 
up to a high amphitheatre, where a camp was formed, and 
where the sick soon recovered in the more bracing air. 

Natives flocked round with goats and sheep for sale, and 
naked children played on reed pipes and sang lustily ; very 
soon a sort of bazaar was formed, where onions, tobacco, figs, 

and olives could be purchased. 

178 



SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

The march from Koomaylee to the next station, Sooroo, 
led over rock and precipice, through jungles of mimosa and 
round many an angle of jutting granite. 

After Sooroo they had to pass through a narrow defile 
crowned with pine, where voices and sounds were echoed like 
distant thunder, and hundreds of gullies and ravines, now 
empty, threatened the traveller with death from drowning. 

Undel- Welly was the next camping ground, in the midst 
of fantastic hills that sparkled in the sun as the rays lit up 
the quartz. 

Another day's march brought them to a tableland 8000 
feet high above the sea, and soon they saw Senafe at the 
base of a high crag. 

A short rest, and on they went to Goom-Gooma, in a 
lovely glen, above which was a Shoho village — mud houses, 
with flat roofs of straw, from which came queerly dressed or 
undressed people, who sat and stared ; in the centre was the 
village square, where the patriarch sat and heard complaints 
from tattooed and swarthy ruffians. 

After this they went over a sandstone country destitute 
of vegetation, with green hills ahead and splendid peaks for 
occupation by the enemy ; but Theodore had not thought 
of being so rude and troublesome. 

On a neck of rock was perched the church and village of 
Focada. The church was placed on the brink of a deep 
chasm, surrounded by trees ; the inner walls of the church 
were adorned by cartoons. The priests of Abyssinia were 
clothed in a cotton robe with a broad scarlet band ; they 
wore turbans, and, like their churches, were not very clean. 

The next march, to Attigratt, was over a solid bed of 
rock, where blasting tools had been in requisition to make 
the road passable ; after this great forests of tamarisk and 
scrub-oak had to be traversed ; then came a wide valley, and 
green corn and watered fields. 

179 



LORD NAPIER. OF MAGDALA 

Nut-brown girls and naked urchins ran out to meet 
the white-faced strangers and offer milk, "haleeb," for a 
consideration. 

There was a castle at Attigratt, but the chief was in 
Theodore's dungeon, and his lady had vowed not to come out 
into the sunshine till he returned. 

On every rock stood scores of curious natives loudly com- 
menting on the strange sight they saw : of sentries in scarlet 
uniform — for Attigratt was now the headquarters of Sir 
Robert Napier — of officers cantering hither and thither with 
rattling sabre ; of horses and mules tethered in long rows ; and 
lastly, of field-guns and rifles stacked, and of glittering steel. 

As they marched towards Magdala our army saw inac- 
cessible hills crowned with fort or castle ; they passed 
through forests in which Abyssinian monkeys barked and 
snarled. At the camp of Agulla they were joined by 
Colonel Merewether, the Pioneer officer, and Clements 
Markham, the geographer. 

Soon after landing in Ethiopia the Commander-in-Chief 
had sent a proclamation to the governors and chiefs of pro- 
vinces, and to the religious orders, explaining that the sole 
object of the expedition was to release the prisoners, that he 
came with no unfriendly design against their country or 
people, and that all supplies would be paid for. 

Prince Kussai, of Tigre, arranged with Major James 
Grant, C.B., the former companion of Speke in his travels, 
for a friendly meeting with the English chief. Sir Robert, 
mounted on a gaily caparisoned elephant, with a select 
body of cavalry, rode forth to meet the prince and his five 
hundred warriors. 

Kussai rode up under the shade of a State umbrella of 
maroon-coloured velvet ; at his right side were his spear and 
shield-bearers, at his left his gun-bearer ; his generals walked 
before him, and two English officers escorted the group. 

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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

The Tigrean prince, dressed in a long silken robe of 
many colours, with a lion-skin cape, his thick hair oiled 
and plaited into ridges, embraced Sir Robert fervently and 
said — 

" We do not much like to see strangers in this country ; 
but if strangers must come, we prefer they should be 
Christians. " 

Sir Robert replied : " We have come here only because 
bad men hold our countrymen in captivity ; we shall not 
disturb your dominions in the least." 

" That's right, 1 ' said Kussai ; " Theodore is a bad man. 
I hope sincerely you will punish him as he deserves. " 

Then they entered the durbar tent, conversed at large, 
exchanged presents ; and the result was that Kussai agreed 
to allow the British troops a free passage through his 
country, with license to buy food. 

Then Sir Robert reviewed the Abyssinian troops, who 
were well-formed and athletic, but armed mostly with spear, 
shield, and sword ; the select few carried guns of sorts and 
of all nations. Each nation was criticising the other. The 
English soldiers eyed the brawny mountaineers and thought, 
"If Theodore can conquer you, it must be only because 
he has better arms." The Tigrean officers said, "Oh! 
those cannons are not nearly so large as we had expected 
to see ; but we know the English practise enchantment, and 
can throw balls of fire through the air, and set fire to a 
town miles away ; very strong fighters in the open plain, no 
doubt, but on the mountains — of what good ? " 

When, on 3rd March, Sir Robert Napier and Sir Charles 
Staveley with the 2nd Brigade arrived in camp at Antalo, 
the whole province of Enderta seemed roused to excitement. 
Thousands of scantily robed warriors looked on at the 
strange army ; women and brown-skinned urchins lined the 
roadside and lay in litters ; the Antalo garrison cheered, and 

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LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

the natives sang a joyous lululu in honour of the approach- 
ing conqueror of the emperor whom they feared. 

The Scinde Horse, having a crimson cloth folded round 
their heads, wearing their green uniform, and armed with a 
short double-barrelled rifle and tulwar, or Indian sword, took 
the brown men's fancy most. After the cavalry came the 
battery of six Armstrong guns, the elephants, and transport- 
train with its 7000 mules and 5000 attendants ; the whole 
stretched a distance of seven miles. And after these came 
a host of Indian bearers and oxen for the commissariat, 
followed by native vendors of various foods. In the evening 
there was a strange throng of struggling natives round the 
dozen Parsees who were distributing dollars from bags to 
pay for grain, cattle, sheep, honey, &c. 

Indian policemen (Chuprassies) were there to keep order 
and prevent stealing, but it was a noisy and motley assembly. 

To take an army into an enemy's country is comparatively 
easy ; to organise the transport and commissariat will tax 
the cleverest brain. It was rendered more difficult and ex- 
pensive by the fact that the Abyssinians used blocks of rock- 
salt for coins, except that they employed occasionally the 
Austrian dollar of 1780, and no other. 

The question soon became mooted in camp, "Was 
Theodore going to fight? Where would he dispute their 
passage ? Would he send presents and give in ? " It was 
no use asking Abyssinians, for their love of truth was not 
intense ; yet most of them prayed hard that the emperor 
might get his deserts. 

They had had enough of blazing towns, and wailing 
widows, and murdered soldiers. According to native report, 
30,000 men, women, and children had been crucified, stabbed, 
or beheaded by the tyrant's orders within the last three 
months. For Theodore was now often drunk on tej , that 
seductive compound of arrack and honey. When he was very 

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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

drunk he was apt to slay his best friends and advisers. The 
foreign captives still lived, and were supplied with money 
through Colonel Merewether ; they could buy some luxuries, 
but were living in constant fear of torture and death. 

Theodore had sent no reply to Sir Robert's proclamation. 
He was trying to increase his army, had defeated Menelek, 
King of Shoa, and was moving on Magdala with 10,000 
men and twenty big cannon, where he might arrive in 
February 1868. The great native chiefs had almost all 
deserted their emperor and were accepting gifts from Sir 
Robert, who, instead of marching headlong upon the capital, 
was winning support all round by wise diplomacy. From 
Antalo the road to Magdala looked as if it were blocked by 
stupendous mountains, whose red pinnacles shot up menac- 
ingly, or slate-coloured reefs lay piled one upon another. 
Soldiers shook their heads dubiously, and wondered how they 
would ever get through such a tangle of rocks. 

When the road was very steep the mules got ahead of 
the elephants, who puffed and trumpeted with pain ; but on 
fair roads the big creature with his 1800-pound load kept 
the lead easily ; the young elephants bore the strain best. 
Everywhere these gigantic animals roused the admiration of 
the staring crowds. 

Sometimes, when chiefs came into camp for a conference, 
Sir Robert would invite them to inspect the elephants and 
big guns. Then the Mahouts, or drivers, would make them 
charge, wheel, halt, kneel, and trumpet at the word of com- 
mand, and the fame of them went through all the land. 

It would be tedious to recount the toil and troubles of 
each day's march, but how arduous it was at times may be 
gathered from one report — 

"One hundred and sixty-six animals belonging to the 
Abyssinian transport-train died on the last march from 
Mesheck to Atzala." 



LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

In war-time, as we saw in our last Boer campaign, the 
poor animals suffer more than the men, and too often no 
merciful eye notes their need. After climbing painfully 
through the lofty ranges of Mosobo the troops went through 
virgin forests of tropical beauty, which they were too tired 
to enjoy ; again they left the myrtle and sweet-briar and tall 
pine, and suddenly, 3000 feet below them, saw Lake Ashangi 
glittering in its setting of gneiss and mica and quartz. 

The camp was pitched close to the lake in a park-like 
country ; the men, regardless of crocodiles, plunged in and 
disturbed by their laughter and joyous shouts the thousands 
of wagtails, geese, herons, and pelican whose home was in 
sedgy pool or waving reeds. 

Next day the animals were rested, but forage was getting 
short and rations were reduced one half. 

Picturesque ravines had little attraction for tired soldiers, 
some of whom crawled into camp at 5 p.m., while the last 
man did not arrive until midnight. 

After crossing the Takazze River the army set itself to 
climb a mountain ; short spurts followed by long rests were 
the order of the day. If Theodore had thought of disput- 
ing the pass he could have made a Thermopylae of it with 
small loss to himself. 

When they had climbed up to 11,000 feet above the sea 
they cheered and then flung themselves down breathless on 
the soft grass of the plateau. In the morning, hoar frost was 
on leaf and blade of grass, and all were shivering after the 
heat of the lower slopes. 

One morning — it was when they were in camp at 
Santurai — the pickets fired as a signal that an armed body 
was approaching. 

The infantry threw themselves forward in skirmishing 
order to check the enemy, when Colonel Fraser rode up to 
warn them that it was a friendly body of men. In fact it was a 

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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

powerful prince, Wagshum Gobazye, who commanded a force 
of forty thousand men. An accident might have turned these 
men from friends to foes ; one unfortunate shot might have 
conveyed the impression that they were being treacherously 
attacked. In that case, the British army would have had 
Theodore in front and Wagshum Gobazye in their rear. 

As it was, the regiments presented arms, the bands struck 
up a merry welcome to the stalwart Abyssinians, many of 
whom wore bracelets and necklaces of amber, and tinkling 
anklets round their ankles. The two generals conferred in 
Sir Robert's tent, presents were given, and all went well. 

By the time that the army had come to the Dalanta 
plateau, after going down 4000 feet into the Jeddah ravine, 
they fell exhausted. Also there were left only six and a half 
ounces of grain for each animal ! But next day Captain 
Speedy brought in a hundred mules laden with grain, for 
when once the natives knew that money was forthcoming 
they brought in flour, honey, chickens, grass, and goats. 

From the edge of the Dalanta plateau Magdala could be 
seen ! The tents of Theodore's army were pitched beneath the 
city, and the smoke was visible curling up from his camp fires. 

Magdala was perched on a rocky mass between two 
mountains — Fahla on the right, Selasse on the left. The 
Bechilo valley lay between our army and the mountain on 
which Magdala was built. 

It was Good Friday, April 10, 1868, when the British 
soldiers were paraded for roll-call before they began that 
steep and long descent. Sir Charles Staveley led the 1st 
Brigade, and having crossed the Bechilo, he was to make a 
detour to the right and occupy a plateau under Fahla. The 
2nd Brigade, with mountain artillery and rocket battery, 
were to proceed up the Aroje valley, and secure a small 
knoll under Selasse. Sir Robert was with the 2nd Brigade, 
and in two hours they had reached the swift and muddy 

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LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

Bechilo River, now about four feet deep. Men were very 
thirsty, and, as they forded, stopped to drink. All was in 
confusion, but Theodore made no sign ; he had not even posted 
any outlying pickets on the ranges in flank of our army. 

The Commander-in-Chief, his staff, and other officers, 
lunched on the banks of the Bechilo, resting an hour before 
they tackled the last slope. A dead silence was over all the 
hills in the valley. Knowing that Theodore was a man of 
wiles, Colonel Milward ordered Lieutenant Nolan to ride 
forward and reconnoitre. He found no enemy lying in wait 
— only Colonel Phayre and a few officers reposing on the 
grass, and arguing whether Theodore meant to fight or not. 

When the 2nd Brigade reached their last camping- 
ground, about 3 p.m., glasses were turned on all the hills 
around. And as they looked and doubted, a puff of smoke 
was seen, a " boom " came a little later to their ears, and 
a huge chain-shot flew and sang over the heads of the 
consulting colonels ! 

" They are coming down, sir," shouted a sergeant to his 
colonel. 

" Where ? where ? " and glasses were levelled at the for- 
bidden rocks. But Colonel Penn had lost all his fictitious 
insouciance as he waved his sword and shouted the words 
of command sharp and crisp. 

" Bring up those guns, boys ! Get ready for action. 
Look smart there ! " 

Before the guns were ready three huge cannon from 
Fahla had boomed, and sent their 68-pound chain-shot over 
Napier and his staff. 

This was only the prelude to a continuous thunder and blaze 
of fire from Theodore's ten big guns, and under cover of this 
came charging down some four thousand furious Abyssinians. 

With the exception of the Sappers and Miners, Sir Robert 
and his staff had no help at hand, for the brigades had not 

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•sf 







SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

yet climbed up so high ; and then the enemy were pouring 
down Fahla slope in a compact body. Theodore had kept 
silence long enough ; now he was speaking in earnest. 

" Bring up the ' King's Own ' on the double," commanded 
Sir Robert Napier ; " and you, sir, order the Naval Brigade 
here instantly ; and you, Sir Charles, let the Punjaubees 
deploy across that narrow plateau in front, but do not fire 
until the enemy are within two hundred yards of you." 

Soon the British could hear the war-songs of the men 
who had conquered all the other provinces of Abyssinia ; 
they were coming fast and joyously, the foot soldiers bran- 
dishing long spears, and flinging away robe and loin-cloth 
as they ran. Sir Robert still sat unmoved on his charger, 
and watched the dusky warriors reforming on the plateau ; 
between him and them was only a thin line of men — six 
companies of Bombay and Madras Indians armed with the 
old muzzle-loading " Brown Bess. 11 Would they stand firm? 
It was doubtful. At this moment an " aide " galloped up. 

" Here they are, sir ! the Naval Brigade. 11 

" Very good, 11 said Napier ; "let Captain Fellowes take 
position on that little knoll in front. 11 

How glad the staff were to see the little squad of sailors 
busily preparing for the fight. 

" Action, front ! " shouted the naval captain. 

" Action, front ! " said the lieutenant and boatswain — 
all in the same song to-day, and as sharp as needles. Rocket- 
tubes were quickly unstrapped by the sailors and set up ; 
the muleteers took their animals to the rear ; ammunition- 
men stood ready, and only awaited one word. 

" Fire ! " It came not too soon. 

The nearest horsemen of the enemy were in the act of 
launching their spears when a stream of red fire darted 
through the foemen's ranks, leaving a gap where strewn men 
clutched the ground. A second — a third ploughed its way 

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LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

through the coming throng, and the sailors and marines, 
seeing their handiwork, cheered amain. Horses were pulled 
up by chiefs, men on foot halted and stared at each other, 
as if asking, " What strange magic is this ? " 

Before they could recover from their surprise at the 
strange guns, a fierce cheer from behind the staff made the 
general turn his head to see what was coming. 

The " King's Own " were charging at the double, grasp- 
ing their Sniders with eager hands. A quarter of an hour 
ago these men had been fretfully reclining on the slope far 
below when the boom of Theodore's cannon fetched every 
man to his feet. 

As they listened with hearts beating high, an aide-de- 
camp galloped up, his horse in a lather, and delivered his 
order. The fierce war-fever broke out in face and muscle — 
they forgot they were tired and exhausted, and sprang off as 
if for a race. They had just time to crest the slope when 
the enemy were found only fifty paces in front of them, 
flushed with hope of victory. 

" Commence firing from both flanks," sang out Colonel 
Cameron. 

Instantly a storm of bullets struck the naked bodies of 
the Abyssinians ; down they went like swathes of corn be- 
hind a reaper, and their comrades again wavered, and 
forgot to hurl their spears. 

They were brave men set to contend with shield and spear 
against modern rifles, and the issue was from no fault of theirs. 

" Retreat ! " bellowed their chiefs ; but retreat was not so 
easy, for the rifle bullet and the rocket caught them as they 
ran or tried to hide behind bush or boulder. 

About a thousand of them turned off and tried to capture 
Penn's battery, which was isolated on a little knoll below 
Mount Selasse. Colonel Penn seemed to smile as he gave 
the word to "Fire!" 

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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

A sharp report, and six shells sang their way towards 
the advancing mass, while a strange cracking noise sounded 
above the enemy's heads, followed by a torrent of downward 
piercing fragments of iron which levelled great patches of 
men here and there. 

Still the brave Abyssinians, led by Dayatch (or General) 
Deris, tore on madly, across knolls and ravines of wild olive, 
until they were at the base of the little hill on which the 
battery was posted. Sir Robert Napier was watching all 
the time, and, to make things safe and sure, ordered the Pun- 
jaub Pioneers, who had just arrived, to go to their support. 
Again the natives found themselves faced by volleys upon 
volleys — a hundred bullets to every one of theirs discharged 
from their long matchlocks — and they swerved to a small 
ravine overgrown with dense iungle. 

As they issued lower down from this ravine they were met 
by a few companies of the " Duke of Wellington's Own," 
which were escorting the baggage. Another rattle of 
muskets — this time the deadly Snider rifle with its steady, 
continuous roar — assailed ear and body, while the Punjaubees 
had followed and were dealing slaughter from the rear. 

The Abyssinians were caught as in a trap, and were drop- 
ping dead on all sides. Ten minutes of this would have seen 
their utter annihilation, but they doubled back to the ravine 
whence they had come, and the Punjaubees also ran up the 
slope above and parallel to them ; so that when the remnant 
of the enemy bounded out of cover near the battery they 
were shot down again by a withering fire from the Sepoys. 

But the hot blood of the Sikhs was not content with this 
cold massacre ; if the Abyssinians desired a hand-to-hand 
fight they should have it. With a wild war-cry the Sikhs 
fixed bayonets and charged down upon the African moun- 
taineers — the pick of Asia against the flower of Africa — but 
the latter were already tired and breathless with their climb 

189 



LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

up the dark ravine. Still they hurled their spears, and drew 
curved scimitars, and crossed weapons with loud crash of 
thrust and parry, and stroke and counter-stroke. No cry for 
mercy was heard, and no mercy was given : the scene was too 
terrible to witness or describe. It should have been observed 
by statesmen who rush into war with a light heart. 

It seemed as if heaven itself had relinquished its policy 
of standing aloof and letting the best man win ; for the sky 
became suddenly dark and overcast, the muttering thunder 
seemed to denounce the day's deeds, and forked lightning lit 
up for an instant the gloomy rocks on which Magdala was 
built, and left them all the gloomier. 

Meanwhile the Emperor Theodore had been seeing a 
good deal of what had happened beneath him through his 
glass. He had noted how little damage his big guns had 
been doing, and what destruction the bright little guns of the 
British had worked upon his bravest. He raved and swore 
and drank arrack, and demanded of his gunners why they 
could not shoot better. 

" See 1 " he cried, " the English are not afraid of my 
chain-shot ; they march up in spite of my big balls. Now 
they are so close under us, you cannot depress the muzzles 
enough to bear upon them." 

Three hundred Snider rifles, six hundred Enfields, and a 
dozen rocket-guns were raking the steep incline, and searching 
every mound and clump of bushes. 

Sir Robert, in his white sun-jacket, was riding about en- 
couraging his men and giving fresh orders as circumstances 
changed. He wore his usual placid smile, now that the 
Abyssinian attack had been finally repulsed. But Magdala 
was not yet captured ! 

By 5.30 p.m. the great guns of the emperor had ceased fire. 
What was the use of wasting balls on men who dealt in magic ? 

The April twilight came and went, and all the ground 
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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

was strewn with stripped corpses, or white with the linen 
robes of fallen chiefs. 

The soldiers, tired and hungry, found that the tents had 
not yet arrived. There were no provisions for man or beast. 
The men grumbled and swore, the mules brayed sarcastically, 
and the neigh of the horses was pathetic. They too had 
worked hard, and could not understand such stupid delay. 

So round the smoky fires the men threw themselves 
wearily down and slept. The last thing they heard ere the 
dream-god whispered to them was the cry of the jackal and 
hyena, the tenor and bass of that midnight concert. So 
ended Good Friday in April of that year 1868. 

Next morning the Surgeon Sahib made his report to the 
general : " One officer severely wounded, thirty-one privates 
wounded." That was all ! 

Next, a detachment was sent to count the enemy's dead, 
and bring their wounded to the camp hospital. What a 
feast certain panthers and other scavengers had enjoyed ! 
What a night the wounded had spent, desperately in their 
agony and weakness defending themselves against the fierce 
and hungry brutes that stooped over them and sniffed blood ! 

Dayatch Deris was carried to hospital with a broken leg ; 
beside him were 75 wounded Abyssinians : 560 were buried 
by English or Indian troops. 

Sir Robert was minded to give Theodore one more chance, 
for a fierce onslaught might endanger the lives of the 
prisoners whom they had come to save. So he sent Theodore 
a summons to surrender ; but the bearer met two messengers 
from the emperor, and he returned with them to Napier's 
tent. 

They were English, one being Mr, Flad, a missionary. 
They told the general how Theodore had yesterday admired 
the martial scene, and how he had mistaken the ammunition 
boxes on the mules for boxes of golden dollars. 

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LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

" Go, my children ; capture the treasure, and drive the 
Feringhees away." 

He began the fight with a bursting cannon, but still he 
fully expected a glorious victory ; and when he saw his men 
swept away and the Feringhees ever climbing up and up, he 
gnashed his teeth and stamped, and attempted to commit 
suicide. Thrice in the night he attempted this, but his 
trusty bodyguard prevented him ; and in his drunken 
misery he called in vain for his favourite generals — they had 
given their lives for their lord. 

The two captives were sent back to Theodore with this 
message — 

" Tell him I require an instant surrender of the captives 
with their goods, of himself, and of the fortresses of Selasse, 
Fahla, and Magdala. He may rest assured that he shall 
receive honourable treatment. 1 '' 

About 3 p.m. the same two captives returned from 
Magdala, asking for better terms, as he was a king and 
could not surrender to any chief who served a woman — 
" rather would I fight to the death." 

When the delegates were sent back to Theodore, with 
the command that the king must surrender unconditionally, 
many in camp feared what torture these two men would 
endure at Theodore's hands. 

However, that monarch thought it wise to release all 
the captives. He gave orders to that effect, and stood at 
the gate to bid them adieu. 

They filed out and made their salaams. Then in the 
evening light they went down to where they saw the twinkling 
lights of the British camp. 

About 7 p.m. the first captives arrived before the general's 
tent. When the news spread, hundreds of soldiers ran to 
headquarters to see the captives. They were surprised to see 
that most of them looked well and strong. Yet it had been 

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SOLDIER AND LIBERATOR 

said that they were kept naked, in chains — a mass of sores. 
Sixty-one men, women, and children, 187 servants, and 323 
animals had come to claim protection and hospitality. The 
soldiers wondered if, after all, their need had been so extreme 
as to require an army to rescue them. 

It was Easter Monday. No submission had come from 
Theodore, but eight chiefs came to deliver up Fahla and 
Selasse, and to say that the emperor had escaped at midnight. 

However, Magdala had to be taken. By noon, and in 
great heat, the troops had climbed up to the base of the 
central hill. Here they saw a gorgeous chief riding about 
on a white horse. Captain Speedy knew him to be the 
emperor. So he had not escaped ! But the rock on which 
Magdala was perched rose above them 500 feet, being a mile 
and a half in length and half a mile wide. A stone wall 
defended the brow of the hill, on which were planted hurdles. 

The batteries were brought up, and at a signal the shells 
and balls flew upward. If the men had doubted the 
messages of torture sent by the captives, they had only to 
look down into a pit near the walls, where over 300 dead 
prisoners lay piled one upon another — naked, but in their 
fetters ! It is true we had vexed the emperor by our per- 
tinacity, but he need not have vented his wrath upon these 
poor specimens of humanity. 

Well — the assault was made in a thunderstorm. The 
33rd climbed up and passed the hurdles, and opened the 
gates. A short resistance ended in a flight. The British 
flag was hoisted ; helmets were raised and cheers heartily 
given, while the bands played " God Save the Queen." 

Meanwhile some soldiers had come across a dying man 
near the second gate, with a revolver clutched in his right hand. 
They took the revolver for loot, but saw on a silver plate on 
the stock an inscription which showed it had been given to 
" Theodoras, Emperor of Abyssinia, by Queen Victoria." 

193 N 



LOUD NAPIER OF MAGDALA 

Some Abyssinians came by and looked on the face of the 
dying man. Why should they recoil in so strange a manner, 
murmuring, " Todros 1 Todros ! " Officers were attracted to 
the spot by the cry of " Todros." They bent over the fallen 
foe, and saw a native clad in coarse and torn garments, but 
wearing underneath these clean linen. The face was high- 
cheek boned, the nose aquiline, the forehead high, the hair 
divided into three long plaits. As he gasped his last, two 
rows of white teeth came into view. 

The hand that had murdered so many had been lifted at 
last against himself; for he was too proud to submit to a 
woman ! The Messiah was dead ! 

Sir Robert rode up soon, and ordered the body to be 
buried. One of Theodore's queens selected the chaplain who 
should read the burial service over him. 

Shortly after, the Abyssinian prisoners were released from 
gaol. Princes, generals, peasants — all heavily fettered. The 
soldiers speedily unfastened their fetters, as they stood blink- 
ing and confused. Then they knew who were their friends, 
and many knelt and kissed the hands of the British soldiers. 

Magdala was burnt, the cannon were destroyed, the 
prisoners were sent to their homes, the captives were brought 
to England. 

The Queen telegraphed her " thanks to Sir Robert 
Napier and his gallant force. " The Duke of Cambridge's 
message was, " You have taught once more what is meant by 
an army that can go anywhere and do anything.'" 

So the expedition ended well, to the confusion of all 
croakers ; and the country was deeply grateful to Lord 
Napier of Magdala, his officers and men, not forgetting the 
swarthy contingent from Bombay. 1 

1 In part from Stanley's Coomassie and Magdala, by kind permission of 
Jiady Stanley. 

194 



CHAPTER XI 

LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

GARNET WOLSELEY came of an old English family 
to whom the Manor of Ouseley was granted by 
King Edgar for exterminating the wolves on Can- 
nock Chase ; hence the wolf's head is the crest, and Homo 
homini lupus (One man is a wolf to another), is the motto of 
the family. 

But in George II. 's reign, Colonel Sir Richard Wolseley, 
Bart., Garnet's great-grandfather, went to Ireland to claim 
some confiscated land which had been allotted to an ancestor 
by William III. This colonel built himself a house at 
Tullow, in the county of Carlow. Hence the English blood 
was mixed with Irish experiences, and (by marriage) with 
French Huguenot connection. 

Garnet's mind as a boy was all for mathematical studies, 
and in 1852, in his eighteenth year, he obtained a commis- 
sion at Chatham, and in June sailed for the Cape. Ambition 
and a desire to do honour to his family kept the young man 
busy during the long voyage, poring over a Hindustani 
grammar, reading any book on the art of war, and practising 
drawing, in which he excelled. At the Cape he was nearly 
drowned in a storm. Towards the end of October, as they 
sailed up the Hoogley, they heard minute guns being fired, 
and asked the reason. It was a shock to many when the 
answer came, "The Duke of Wellington is dead." All on 
deck felt that England had lost what could not be replaced. 

Some tedious weeks at Chinsura made the young officer 
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LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

long for active service. It came soon, for he was embarked 
for Burma, where General Godwin was conquering the gentle 
Burmese, whom Garnet found to his surprise very superior 
in character to the Hindu — a fine, manly people, who enjoy 
life and are by nature artists ; their women, too, struck him 
as frank, laughter-loving children, the free wives of the free. 
In leading a storming party against Meeah-Toon, Wolseley 
was badly wounded ; but he had distinguished himself 
greatly. However, his wound was so severe he was sent 
home, again by the Cape. 

He was made lieutenant and transferred to the 90th 
Light Infantry, and tells us that the old " Brown Bess, 11 the 
musket in use, kicked horribly and threw the muzzle up. 

In the spring of 1854 the new Minie rifle was given out. 
The Duke of Wellington had always been averse to the rifle, 
for England had won her battles by volleys delivered at close 
quarters, followed by the bayonet charge. But inventions 
come, and the old style of fighting has to be changed ; also, 
a new weapon needs to be learnt by the soldier. It was just 
at this moment, when we were changing our rifle, that war 
was declared against Russia, though we had no military 
transport, and private firms of shipowners had to lend the 
Government their ships. And our staff-officers ! Wolseley 
says, in his interesting Story of a Soldier's Life, they were 
incompetent, and knew as little of war and its science as 
they did of the differential calculus. Most of these fine 
gentlemen had secured their positions by family or political 
interest, and had never studied for their profession. Our 
men were too few to do the work set them ; they were badly 
fed, ill clothed, and their bill-hooks and pickaxes bent as they 
used them. " In the Government that sent our men to the 
Crimea there was no soldier " ; they understood nothing of 
war, its wants and difficulties. 

Wolseley made friends with "Chinese Gordon 11 in the 
196 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

Crimea, who, he says, absolutely ignored self in all he did, 
and only took in hand what he conceived to be God's work. 
Gordon was then a good-looking, curly-headed young man 
of twenty-two ; his eyes, bright and blue, seemed to pierce 
to your soul ; his life, even then, was one long prayer. 

Wolseley regrets that, owing to the small army sent out, 
the want of genius shown in the siege operations, and the 
transport and commissariat deficiencies, England played a 
poor part in the Crimean War compared to France. 

He himself had been severely wounded, and was placed 
on the staff of Sir Richard Airey ; but he could not be pro- 
moted major until he had been six years in the army, though 
he had been specially mentioned for promotion. 

He is very severe in his strictures on the promotion by 
purchase, which Mr. Cardwell lived to abolish by his per- 
sistent advocacy in Parliament. The greatest fool, Wolseley 
says, who has enough money to purchase promotion has only 
to live long enough to enable him to reach the top of the 
colonels' list, and be certain of promotion to general's rank ! 

In 1857 Wolseley was ordered to China with his battalion 
of the 90th Light Infantry. When they had arrived at the 
Straits of Banca, near Sumatra, the transport struck on a 
rock. "I was lighting my cigar from that of a brother 
officer when I was shot forward upon him by the ship having 
suddenly stopped dead ; the masts shook as if they would go 
overboard."" Wolseley 's men were in the lower deck, lit only 
by one lantern. He had to go down and fall the men in, and 
wait in silence while the ship was sinking by the stern ; they 
all felt they were going to be drowned like rats in a trap, 
but at last some one came and ordered them all on deck. 

The sea fortunately was quite calm, and very soon a 
thousand men had got safely by boat upon a coral reef, and 
thence to the island of Banca, where they lived for two days 
on pine-apples. Wolseley was better off than most, because 

197 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

his Irish servant had said, as his master left the ship, 
" Never mind me, sir ; I will stay and try to bring you off 
some of your things. " The faithful servant emptied his 
knapsack of all his own things and brought Wolseley many 
valuables ! The good officer is beloved by his men, as is so 
often seen. " All my young days I had good reason for my 
belief in the 6 Tommies ' — as personal friends of my own." 

When the Dove gunboat came from Singapore to take 
them off, she brought the startling news that the Bengal 
Sepoys had mutinied ! and that the 93rd were to go to 
Calcutta. 

So Garnet Wolseley had plenty of fighting, and was at 
the relief of Lucknow under Sir Colin Campbell. 

After this he was on the staff of Sir Hope Grant in 
Oudh, and served in the reconquest of that province. He 
dates the end of the Mutiny as May 23, 1859 ; but the 
display of daring and heroism which our soldiers gave to the 
natives of India seems now to be forgotten, and once more 
rebellion is lifting up its head. 

In 1860 Wolseley was serving in the China War, and in 
1861 he was ordered to Canada as assistant quartermaster- 
general, after the envoys of the Confederate States had been 
taken from the Trent by a United States frigate. 

In 1870 he was chosen to command an expedition against 
Riel and the half-breeds on the Red River, who were in 
rebellion. Wolseley's success in taking his men by boat to 
Fort Garry was the probable occasion of his being selected 
to command the army going up the Nile to rescue Gordon. 

The Red River Expedition only cost ,£100,000. For 
that sum fourteen hundred men were conveyed in canoes 
600 miles through a wilderness where there was no food. 
We found the same economy used when Lord Kitchener had 
the organisation of a force. 

When Wolseley returned to England he was complimented 

198 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

by the Duke of Cambridge and by Mr. Cardwell, Secretary 
of State for War, who had then determined upon the aboli- 
tion of purchase ; for the great victories of the Prussians 
over the French in 1871 were teaching the English a serious 
lesson in military organisation. But if Mr. Cardwell and 
Lord Northbrook had not supported Wolseley in his out- 
spoken criticism, that officer would have been shelved for 
his want of reserve. As it was, Wolseley was now employed 
on the headquarter-staff at the Horse Guards, where he was 
ever preaching army reform. 

We now come to the Ashantee War of 1873, which really 
grew out of the abolition of the slave trade. For naturally 
the Ashantee king resented our depriving him of a lucrative 
market ; and he had not any great opinion of Britain's 
power, because in 1817 we had bought them off, and in 
1824, when Sir Charles MacCarthy had been defeated, we 
sent no punitive force. They had kept the general's skull 
as a trophy, and so King Koffee Kalcali in 1873 thought 
he might insult us and ill-use our native subjects with 
impunity. 

In the spring of 1873 news came from the Gold Coast 
that 12,000 Ashantees had crossed the Prah to lay waste our 
protectorate. They were soon near Cape Coast Castle and 
Elmina ; the latter place they attacked, but it was gallantly 
held by Colonel Festing and Lieutenant Wells of the Royal 
Navy. The Fantee troops whom we employed were arrant 
cowards and would take no risks ; so that the Gold Coast was 
at the mercy of the Ashantees. Lord Kimberley, Minister 
for the Colonies, decided to appoint a soldier governor of 
that land, and Wolseley was chosen as being a man who took 
trouble, and learnt how to do things before he was called upon 
to act. So Wolseley selected his officers, all young, and asked 
for two first-rate battalions specially equipped for a campaign 
in the tropics. The climate was detestable and dangerous to 

199 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

health, and there were only three months in the year when 
it would be safe to employ white troops. 

They left Liverpool in September 1873 ; and on the 
voyage, instead of idling the time pleasantly, they listened to 
lectures on the protected tribes and Ashantees, the causes 
of the war, and the topography of the country. Some of 
the officers had been with Wolseley from Lake Superior to 
the Red River, men whose nerves the commander had proved 
in many a tight place. Amongst these were Captain Sir 
Redvers Buller, cool as well as brave, and a practised wood- 
man. The chief of the staff was Colonel M'Neill, always 
cheery, but unfortunately put hors de combat in one of the 
first encounters by a shot fired at close quarters. Captain 
Henry Brackenbury was military secretary, and Frederick 
Maurice private secretary, both able and scientific officers. 
Others were Captain R. Home, R.E., an Irishman fall of 
resource ; Lord Gifford, who had charge of the scouts ; 
Colonels Evelyn Wood and Baker Russell, who were to lead 
native battalions. Alfred Charteris, Wolseley 's A.D.C., 
overtried his strength and died of fever. 

Whatever the natives of Central Africa may be — and 
some explorers, as we have seen, credit them with many good 
qualities — those of West Africa were cowardly and cruel. 
Their chief pleasure seemed to be the opportunity of seeing 
a fellow human being tortured or killed, and the whole 
population would flock out to see a man hanged. 

But, we must remember, many English folk did the same 
only a few years ago ; and cowards though the natives were 
in war, the Krumen were athletes and perfect boatmen. The 
Houssas from Lake Chad were Mahomedans, and more 
trustworthy soldiers ; with these the guns were manned 
under Captain Rait, a brave man and of great physical 
endurance. 

Wolseley's plan was, first, to clear out the Ashantees from 

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THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

the protectorate, then to construct a road from Cape Coast 
to Prahsu, seventy-five miles. 

On 13th October the first object was attempted ; some 
villages full of the enemy were attacked and burnt, some 
bluejackets from the fleet taking part in the day's work, 
which comprised a march of twenty miles in great heat. 
The fight showed that Ashantee powder was weak stuff, and 
their slugs did little damage beyond forty yards ; it also 
proved to the Fantees that their dreaded enemy was not 
quite invincible. 

It was very difficult to get any information about the 
enemy, as no offers of gold or freedom would induce a native 
to go near the Ashantee camp. By the middle of December 
three British battalions had reached the Gold Coast, amongst 
them the " Black Watch," commanded by Colonel Macleod, 
with Captain "Andy " Wauchope as adjutant, who afterwards 
was killed at Magersfontein by the Boers, the Royal "Welsh 
Fusiliers, and the Rifle Brigade. 

All along the Prahsu road shelters had been constructed 
for the sick and wounded ; so the battalions were landed and 
also the Naval Brigade, and all was ready for pushing on 
from Prahsu to Coomassie. 

Major George Colley organised the transport, and 
Wolseley thought him one of his very ablest officers. 

The road to Prahsu, fifteen feet wide, was adorned by 
telegraph posts ! Few trees were visible at first, but dense 
bush twenty feet high usurped the ground. Further on 
came glens, deep pools and creeks in which dusky damsels 
were sporting, while water-lilies redeemed the darkness ; 
then giant trees of cotton-wood and teak, palms, and flowers 
and sweet scents abounded. 

At Dunquah, Colonel Festing held his post ; he had, 
before the arrival of Sir Garnet, defeated the Ashantees in 
several conflicts near Elmina. 

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LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

Sir Garnet left Cape Coast Castle on December 27, 1873, 
and was escorted by the Naval Brigade. These latter had 
promptly made a little negro boy the "pet of the regiment," 
and had dressed him as a bluejacket with a sword of teak. 
When asked his name this proud little gentleman stood up 
to attention, saluted, and answered haughtily, "Mixed 
Pickles, Esquire." 

In eight marches they reached Prahsu, a very pretty 
spot on the bank of a running river seventy yards broad. 
The ground had been cleared and a bridge was being built 
by the Sappers under Captain Hume. 

A few hours after Sir Garnet's arrival messengers were 
brought in from King Koffee by scouts. They carried a 
letter from the king, plaintively surprised that the white 
men, whom he so loved, should come as enemies. The 
messengers were closely guarded, and next day shown the 
Gatling-gun in action, as it was fired at a target in the river. 

There was a large audience for the gathering — ambas- 
sadors, officers, Fantee labourers — all come to listen to the 
sharp, cracking notes of the new army plaything. But alas ! 
it began its prelude badly ; but when a new drum, loaded 
with shot, was placed in position on the top, columns of 
spray shot up all round the target, and the ambassadors 
were perceived to exchange significant glances. In the end, 
boisterous applause greeted this novel concert. 

King Koffee Kalcali was said to be an able man of about 
thirty-five years, of Mulatto colour, and polite to strangers. 
His palace at Coomassie was built of stone, and furnished 
with many European luxuries. Next to the palace in size 
was the Banlammak, or treasure-house, full of gold dust and 
ingots, silks and satins, gifts from the Dutch and French. 
The keeper of the treasury is always a great noble and a 
soldier. 

The army bears flags, but the loss of them carries no 

202 



THE HERO OP MANY FIGHTS 

disgrace ; but if a chief loses in battle his gorgeous umbrella 
he feels dishonoured. 

The life of the soldiers, while waiting for the transport 
arrangements, was not all fun and frolic ; for many of the 
Fantee carriers had bolted, not caring to go too near the 
terrible Ashantees. So that for the present the West India 
soldiers, natives of Jamaica, &c, had to be converted into 
carriers. The fierce, merciless sun made the daytime 
hideous ; the dark, steaming earth sent forth its miasma 
of fever and ague, and the forest hard by, with its dense 
undergrowth, seemed to harbour millions of insects. 

Yet the naked Jamaica negroes went on, bearing their 
burdens of rice, flour, tea, sugar, &c. to the control sheds, 
and grinned or sang through it all. 

In the evening officers and men repaired to the river and 
took a tepid bath. 

Even the white troops found doing sentry in the forest 
somewhat uncanny. 

One Irishman found himself in a pretty pickle at mid- 
night, when harsh, unearthly screams close at hand betokened 
the approach of a wild beast. He dared not fire his rifle, 
because that might rouse the whole camp unnecessarily ; 
but the brave fellow fixed his sword-bayonet and stood 
uneasily on guard, expecting every moment to be carried 
off into the forest and eaten at leisure. 

At last the relief party came round, and the officer, 
turning his lantern's eye on the sentry, saw a perspiring, 
anxious face and fixed bayonet. 

" Hallo ! what's up ? Seen any black fellows about ? " 
said the officer. 

" If you plaze, zur, there's some snake of a wild beast 

a-screaming close by : sure, the divil must be in him. So I 

just fixed my sword for him, to give him a taste of the cold 

steel." 

203 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

" Why, my dear fellow, 'tis no wild beast at all. Hark 
to him ! a poor wee bit of a lemur, not as big as a rabbit ; 
you need never fear him." 

The story made many merry round the blazing camp- 
fires ; the sentry, it is true, got tired of hearing it, and 
never saw the joke. 

But the native is also apt to feel fear when the unknown 
affrights him ; for one day a Fantee was told to take a 
donkey to water, and he started very gaily, laughing at the 
puny thing — he had never seen a donkey before — but, as 
they drew near the river, the animal began to bray 
fortissimo ; thereat the darkie dropped the halter, and ran 
away, yelling, a full mile. 

On 6th January the Ashantee embassy started on their 
return journey through two lines of the Naval Brigade, that 
they might report to the king what preparations for war 
were being made. 

The king sent back an answer by a German missionary, 
one of his prisoners ; who reported that the king, arrogant 
and vain, had supreme power, possessed three hundred wives, 
scattered amongst villages, to look upon whom was death. 

The population of Coomassie was about 15,000, and the 
army was 48,000 strong. 

Sir Garnet sent back a demand that King Koffee should 
release all his prisoners ; and as the king had lately lost many 
officers and men by disease, he was rather inclined to accept 
the terms offered him. 

Stanley, the explorer, who was a newspaper correspondent 
with Sir Garnet, after starting with a prejudice against the 
general, soon became aware of his strong points ; he speaks 
of his untiring energy and youthful ardour, his exuberant 
good-nature and discreet judgment. Sir Garnet began by 
slighting all the gentlemen of the Press, but he ended by 
feeling a warm friendship for H. M. Stanley. 

204 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

By 14th January Lord Gifford and his scouts had reached 
the foot of the Adansi hills, twenty miles on the road to 
Coomassie ; and Sir Garnet and his staff followed five days 
later. From this time the soldiers had to sleep on the damp 
soil, and fevers soon began to enlarge the sick list. 

They found a white cord stretched from tree to tree — 
a sort of fetish, the idea being taken from the telegraph 
wire, which the natives thought a potent form of magic. 
Few animals were seen in the forest, but myriads of ants — 
all on business bent ! 

The Adansi hills are all wooded and full of hollows 
rich with hues of various tints of palm-leaf and plantain, 
tamarind, and pale-green cotton -wood. 

Lord Gifford, in his advance with the scouts, had come 
upon a part of the Ashantee army, whose general implored 
him to come no further into the king's territory. "We 
have no palaver with white men ; go back. We may not 
fight you until the king tells us." 

And they retired before him with reversed muskets, as a 
token of peaceful intentions. 

The capital of Adansi, Fomannah, they found to be no 
contemptible village. A broad avenue led up to it, and the 
houses were one storey high, but roomy ; the best had a 
courtyard, whose walls for a height of three feet from the 
ground were painted red ; above that they were white, and 
bore artistic designs and scroll-work. Many of the stools 
were chiselled into pretty shapes ; sandals and water- vessels 
were like Moorish work ; and doubtless the Moorish visitors 
at the beginning of the century taught the Ashantees to 
furnish and decorate their houses. 

While Major Baker Russell was at Fomannah, the rest 
of the captives were sent in to his headquarters — Mr. and 
Mrs. Ramseger, Germans, with two children ; M. Bonat, a 
French trader, with many Fantee servants. They brought a 

205 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

third letter from the king asking Sir Garnet not to advance 
further. 

But Mr. Dawson, the native interpreter left at Coomassie, 
sent a note to Sir Garnet, in which was, " See 2 Cor. ii. 1 1 ," 
which the general found to read thus : " Lest Satan should 
get an advantage of us ; for we are not ignorant of his 
devices." " He warns me against treachery," thought Sir 
Garnet, "and he believes that King Koffee means to fight. " 

Already the British force had been weakened by disease, 
a disadvantage which had been almost negligible in Abys- 
sinia ; already fourteen officers had been killed or invalided 
home. The Army Medical Corps had with them three 
hundred hammocks, each borne by four natives, all under 
the control of Surgeon-Major Mackinnon. 

Captain Nicol, an elderly officer, lost his life by being 
too compassionate. He advanced to a group of Ashantees 
and asked them to surrender in English. They replied by 
shooting him through the heart. 

Many native villages had to be assaulted and burned on 
the way to Coomassie, and the Ashantees fled into the bush, 
whence they fired till silenced by our men. 

Lord Gifford had discovered that the enemy were strongly 
posted at Amoaful, and that the village of Egginassie was 
held as an outpost. 

Every one awaking on 3rd January was aware that a 
battle was near at hand; at 7 a.m. the "Black Watch" 
marched through Quarman with their swinging stride ; but 
they had not brought the kilt with them, because progress 
through thorny places might have been as bad to them as 
bullets and slugs. 

Amongst the prisoners brought in that morning was a 
slave woman, whose master had shot at her twice before he 
fled into the bush. 

The surgeon extracted all but one of the slugs wherewith 
206 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

her brutal master had hit her, and Sir Garnet ordered her 
some clothes. In her gratitude she told him the king was 
to take the field himself and would advance by the main 
road. 

One of Sir Redvers Buller's native spies also returned 
with news that the main force of the enemy was on rising 
ground this side of Amoaful. He described their position, 
and said they would follow their usual tactics ; namely, draw 
on their enemy in front, then pounce on his flanks and cut 
off his reserves in the rear. 

After an early breakfast on 31st January they started in 
three lines, the centre going by the road, the two outer 
wings having to cut paths through the jungle, each being 
about 300 yards from the road. 

This formation was to prevent the small force from 
being surrounded by the superior numbers of the Ashantees. 
The Highlanders led the centre column, followed by the 
Artillery, the Staff, and the Welsh Fusiliers. The Naval 
Brigade were on the two wings in front, followed by Rait's 
Artillery ; the Engineers and Rifle Brigade guarded the rear. 

As Sir Garnet entered the gloomy recesses of the 
Ashantee forest he could not help thinking of the beautiful 
jungles of Burma, bright with streaks of sunshine, but here 
all was shadow and earth -smelling damp ; black, oily mud 
where streams had been, and dense, dark bush on every side. 

Sir Garnet, mounted on a Madeira cane chair and carried 
on the shoulders of four stalwart and semi-nude Fantees, was 
cordially saluting his men with confident smiles. They were 
going to fight an unseen enemy who had never been defeated, 
but no anxiety could be seen in any face. The progress was 
slow, almost like a funeral procession, for the wings had to 
carve their way onwards ; in cutting this path Captain 
Buckle, of the Royal Engineers, was sniped and killed. 

At eight o'clock Gifford's scouts began to feel the enemy, 
207 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

and a faint rumbling of distant firing stirred the advancing 
force. 

" Yes, the ball has opened at last," said one ; and in a 
quarter of an hour long rolls of musketry seemed to betoken 
that the Highlanders were already engaged, for the sharp 
crack of the Snider was audible. At 9.15 the force came 
upon a group of dying and dead — Captain Buckle and seven- 
teen of the 42nd and others. 

The Ashantees had fired from ambuscades cleverly con- 
trived, but the Highlanders and Artillery steadily searched 
the bush and drove the enemy back. But at one spot the 
Ashantees had constructed a sort of fort of many huts ; it 
was on rising ground beyond a lazy stream and wide expanse 
of morass and black slime. This the enemy defended with 
great pertinacity, but the Highlanders and Houssas were 
not to be denied ; the ghastly heaps of rent bodies that met 
the eyes of our men bore eloquent testimony to the important 
service rendered by the Houssa Artillery. 

The sound of the bagpipes and the Highland cheers came 
to the ears of the men who followed with cheering power, 
and the little town was carried by a rush. Lieutenant 
Saunders, R.A., told how he had seen a chief carried by four 
slaves in the act to escape ; he aimed a shell at them, which 
exploded but a few inches over their heads, and killed every 
soul near. 

Colonel Wood, commanding the right column, was carried 
in with an iron slug in his chest ; fourteen bluejackets, 
grievously wounded, followed — for the fighting at close 
quarters had been terrible. 

Sir Garnet had specially noticed the coolness of Mr. H. 
M. Stanley, the explorer, as he went down on his knee to 
steady his rifle and fired with deadly aim. 

" I had been previously prejudiced by others against him, 
but all such feelings were slain and buried at Amoaful, 

208 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

Ever since I have been proud to reckon Sir Henry Stanley 
amongst the bravest of my comrades and the best of my 
friends.'' 1 

Sir Garnet at one moment saw the enemy break through 
his battalion and threaten the small village where he was 
directing the battle, but at once Commodore Hewett rushed 
to the front, sword in hand, and rallied our men. In an 
instant they were inspired by his splendid example, and 
followed him as their appointed leader. 

At 3 p.m. Major Colley reported that the enemy had 
seriously attacked the rear-guard and the baggage at Quar- 
man. This officer won great praise from Sir Garnet for 
saving the convoy and beating off the Ashantees time 
after time. 

"He was a man in a thousand, with an iron will, who 
would always work as long as there was still anything 
important to be done. . . . He had been nineteen hours 
constantly employed before he lay down to have some 
sleep.'" 

Amoaful was large enough to take in the British army 
and the wounded, and a short rest was given to the troops 
while the transport was bringing up provisions. But several 
attacks were made on Quarman in the rear and the line of 
communications by the desperate savages. The wounded 
Ashantees, the torn bush and rent trunks of big trees 
around Amoaful, proved the penetrating power of the 
Snider rifle. But the enemy had carried away most of 
their wounded, fearing they would meet with the fate dealt 
out by them to their enemies. For one wounded High- 
lander, seeking to return to Egginassie to have his wound 
dressed, lost his way and fell into the hands of some Ashantees, 
who overpowered him and cut off his head. The poor fellow 
had made a good fight for his life, as his slashed arms and 
hands made evident. On 1 st February some of the baggage, 

209 o 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

which the Ashantees had taken when the Fantee carriers 
bolted, was recovered, to the joy of the officers. On the 2nd 
the army resumed its march to Coomassie through the tall, 
dark forest ; the path was strewn with stools, bolsters, and 
corn rations neatly done up in leaves, holding enough to last 
one man a week. A skirmish now and then, a clearing of 
the bush by the seven-pounders, and the way was open to the 
next village ; but each village had its human sacrifice lying in 
the middle of the street — now a man, now a woman. The 
head was severed from the body and placed so as to front the 
advancing army ; the body was laid with the feet towards 
Coomassie. But the soldiers did not stop to read the riddle. 
As they drew near Aggemmamee they found two roads lead- 
ing to Coomassie ; Sir Garnet chose the western, a better 
but longer road. 

On 3rd February they started at daybreak for the river 
Ordah. Ashantees swarmed on all sides, but no longer 
came to close quarters, and their slugs did little harm. 
They were holding the north bank and the village of 
Ordahsu, about 2000 yards beyond the river. 

On the way another letter came from the king asking 
for delay. As Sir Garnet could not cross the river, fight a 
battle, and enter Coomassie in one day, he consented to halt 
one night. 

They reached the Ordah about 3 p.m. It was about 
twenty yards wide, and too deep to ford except for a tall man. 

Russell's regiment was sent across to entrench and cover 
the party who were to spend the night in building a bridge. 
Well did Captain Home and his Engineers do their work, 
though the wind blew a hurricane and the rain fell in torrents. 

The men had no tents, no rugs, or coats ; the fires would 

not burn, and all had to lie on soaking mud. No doubt 

King Koffee put the drenching storm down to the credit of 

his fetish priests. 

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THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

By 7 a.m. on the 4th of February the bridge was finished. 
Sir Garnet inspected the work and complimented the workers ; 
no praise, he said, could be too high for them. 

Soon after 7 a.m. the little army crossed the river, but 
the native allies, fearing the king, lay down and fired wildly 
into the bush. 

So the Rifle Brigade took their place at the head of the 
column. There was great beating of drums on the right and 
a heavy fire, which did some execution. Amongst others, a 
young lieutenant, Eyre, only son of General Sir William 
Eyre, was shot ; and as he lay on the ground with many 
friends around, for he was greatly beloved by all, the poor 
boy murmured " Mother ! " and passed away from battle 
and this cruel world. 

Sir Garnet says, " I helped to bury the boy there and 
then where he fell, whilst friends and foes together fired 
volleys, as if to honour the gallant spirit that had left us. 
... I thought of his widowed mother waiting anxiously at 
home for the return of her only boy, whose still warm body 
we thus buried under fire." 

We can see from such words as these what manner of 
hero we are depicting ; no self-seeker of vain glory, but a 
real man with a warm heart, who loved his men, and was 
by them beloved. 

By 9 a.m. the village of Ordahsu was captured, and all 
the stores were quickly passed on into the village. 

About 11 a.m. the enemy made a determined effort from 
three sides to recover Ordahsu ; once they got so close that 
Colonel Greaves, chief of the staff, had to empty his revolver 
amongst them. 

By noon, when all the stores were safely deposited in 
Ordahsu, Sir Garnet selected the Black Watch for the 
honour of breaking through the Ashantees massed about 
the road leading to Coomassie. 

211 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

" Colonel Macleod, you are to push on and disregard all 
flank attacks. 1 ' 

The colonel, cool and quiet and self-possessed, drew up 
his famous regiment in double file, and out they marched 
into the gloomy tunnel in the forest. The enemy soon 
opened fire upon them. 

" Company A, front rank fire to the right, rear rank fire 
to the left ; forward, my men ! " 

Past ambuscades they went, never stopping, but firing as 
they swung along with bagpipes playing ; while Captain Rait, 
rattling up behind, flung shot and rockets into the dense bush. 

There was no lying down and taking careful aim, but a 
steady tramp towards the capital, now less than six miles 
distant. The Ashantees were perplexed and nervous ; it was 
not what they were used to in warfare ; it was not playing 
the game according to the old rules. Horns were blown in 
the forest, and a wail of despair seemed to come from the 
depths of the thicket. 

In half-an-hour the native regiments were ordered to 
follow with the reserve ammunition ; then came the Staff, 
Rifles, and Naval Brigade. At Akkanwani they found the 
king had been seated there on a stool of gold, surrounded 
by his great chiefs. 

But when the 42nd drew near, and their Snider bullets 
began to hiss and sing near his royal ears, he lost his faith 
in his fetishes, and fled away to his summer residence at 
Amineeha, many miles distant. 

Meanwhile the Highlanders, with Sir Archibald Alison 
on his white mule and Colonel Macleod on foot, crossed the 
deadly swamp which surrounds the capital. 

Sir Archibald had sent back a despatch to Sir Garnet : 
" We have taken all the villages but the last before entering 
Coomassie ; the enemy is flying panic-stricken before us." 

This message was translated to our native troops, who 
212 



THE HERO OF MANY FIGHTS 

cheered and danced for joy. On hearing this the Ashantees 
in the forest lost all heart, and their fire suddenly ceased. 

The road near Coomassie was littered with state umbrellas, 
drums, and royal chairs ; but the victorious army pressed on, 
and by 6 p.m. they gained the broad avenue leading to the city ! 

In a street of seventy yards width the 42nd Highlanders 
were drawn up, awaiting the arrival of the general. When 
he and his staff appeared, loud were the shouts and cheers 
raised. Coomassie had been taken ! 

It was strange to see how many armed Ashantees were 
still in the town ; they looked on in amiable wonder, and 
greeted every Englishman they met with " Thank you " — 
their only English. But it might have been truer than they 
knew, for our army had delivered them from a cruel tyranny 
of king and priesthood. Strict orders were given against 
looting, but the Fantees, who could not fight, knew how to 
steal ; many fires took place that night from their carelessness. 

The next morning, February 5, 1874, Sir Garnet issued 
a general order, thanking the soldiers and sailors in the 
Queen's name. The sick and wounded were at once sent off 
for Cape Coast Castle, and the king was again warned by letter 
that unless he agreed to terms his city would be destroyed. 

The palace was fairly clean, adorned in Moorish style 
and abounding in gold ornaments ; but the ground about 
the buildings was saturated with human blood, for here men 
were butchered daily to appease the spirits of ancestors. 
The murdered were thrown into a grove hard by, the stench 
from which was horrible. 

There was a sacred stool near the place of execution 
which was always kept wet with the blood of victims 
sacrificed. Near it stood the big " Death Drum," four feet 
across, and decorated by human skulls. 

M. Bonat said he had seen lately as many as a dozen 
slaves savagely executed at once and dragged dying or dead 

213 



LORD WOLSELEY, F.M. 

to the awful grove ; he put the number of executions at 
about a thousand a year. 

There were other officers who worked hard to help our 
army by enlisting natives, or fighing elsewhere, or riding 
with despatches. Captain Butler, afterwards Sir William, 
had all the bitterness of failure owing to too great leniency 
with African chiefs. Captain Glover and Captain Dalrymple 
both earned Sir Garnet's praise by advancing through the 
enemy's country ; and Captain Sartorius by a marvellous 
ride of over fifty miles to open communications between 
Glover and Wolseley. 

As the king did not return to Coomassie, the city was 
fired. Rains again fell in torrents, and our army found the 
rivers swollen and difficult to cross ; but they were going 
home and in great spirits ! 

Round the bivouac fires the soldiers asked, " What will 
they say in England ? " But in time of war England honours 
her soldiers ; it is only when we forget their sufferings and 
dangers incurred for our safety that we allow the uniform to 
be considered a mark of inferiority. 

On their return to Cape Coast Castle the whole town 
were in the streets, shouting with delight, and flinging 
themselves on the ground with passionate admiration of 
the victorious heroes. 

So ended a short and successful campaign, carefully 
planned and well thought out, against a manly race of 
Africans. The Ashantees were worthy of a better fate ; they 
had noble qualities, but they were the slaves of a gross and 
cruel superstition. 

Sir Garnet's heroism was also shown in his defeat of the 
Zulu, Sekukuni, and of Arabi Pasha ; and in his conduct of 
the army sent up the Nile to succour General Gordon. 1 

1 In part from the Story of a Soldier's Life, by Lord Wolseley, by kind 
permission of Mr. Murray. 

214 



CHAPTER XII 

LIEUT. -GENERAL SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

THERE are two names in South Africa which testify 
to the memory of this hero — Harrismith and Lady- 
smith. His longest and greatest experiences were in 
Spain and India. These we must pass over as lightly as 
possible, though the autobiography which he has left us 
(John Murray) is full of interesting scenes and incidents. 
Henry George Wakelyn Smith was born at Whittlesea in 
the Cambridge fens in the year 1787. His father, a surgeon, 
married Eleanor Moore, who had fourteen children. Of 
these Alice, Harry's favourite sister, became Mrs. Sargant, 
and an authoress. 

The curate of Whittlesea, George Burgess, taught Harry 
in the east end of the south aisle of St. Mary's Church. He 
tells us that every pains was taken with his education which 
his father could afford ; he learnt natural philosophy, 
classics, algebra, and music. 

The last subject perhaps was due to his mother's influ- 
ence, for her father had been a minor canon of Peterboro' 
Cathedral. 

In 1804, when Harry Smith was nearly seventeen years 
old, England was expecting an invasion of the French, and 
the boy was received into the Whittlesea troop of Yeomanry. 
It was his duty to patrol through the barracks, where 15,000 
French prisoners were guarded, and the grinning prisoners 
laughed at his little figure, and one said, " I say, leetle 
fellow, go home with your mamma ; you shall eat more 

215 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

pudding. 11 But size is not very important, as Nelson also 
showed the world. In 1805, while the Yeomanry were keep- 
ing the ground at a review, General Stewart said to young 
Smith, his orderly — 

" Young gentleman, would you like to be an officer ? " 

" Yes — of all things I should, sir, 11 was the bright reply. 

" Well, I will make you a Rifleman — a green jacket, and 
very smart. 11 

A few weeks later, Harry Smith was gazetted second- 
lieutenant in the 95th Rifles, an experimental corps just 
organised by General Sir W. Stewart. As a vacancy for 
lieutenant occurred for purchase, the surgeon scraped to- 
gether the needed money, i?100, and bought his boy that 
promotion in August. This purchase, he tells us, occurred 
when the 2nd battalion of the corps was being raised — so 
that the i?100 obtained for him twenty-seven steps ! Harry ^ 
first service was in South America, where he was made adju- 
tant ; he distinguished himself in the siege of Monte Video. 

After this he had two months at home. Colonel Beck- 
with, a kind friend, gave him the command of a company 
at Colchester, because that company was in very bad order, 
and needed a martinet. 

In 1808 he went with his company to Sweden, but they 
never landed, for just then Napoleon had invaded Spain, and 
Sir John Moore was ordered to take the troops intended for 
Sweden to Portugal. 

As Harry Smith could speak Spanish (he had learnt 
it in Buenos Ayres from a family with whom he lived) he 
was employed by Colonel Beckwith to go before the regiment 
and help the quartermaster in procuring billets and rations. 
He was in the retreat from Salamanca, and witnessed awful 
and heartrending scenes of drunkenness, riot, and disorder — 
" yet these very fellows licked the French at Corunna like 
men. 11 

216 



MASTER OF MEN 

They embarked for England — all half-clad, eaten up 
with vermin, thin and weak from ague and dysentery — and 
reached Portsmouth in a gale. 

Harry's colonel, meeting him in the George Inn, thundered 
out : " Who the devil's ghost are you ? Pack up your kit — 
which is soon done, for the devil a thing have you got — take 
a place in the coach, and set off home to your father's. I 
shall want you again soon, boy.' 1 

In two months his mother's careful nursing made Harry 
Smith ready for war, and he rejoined his regiment, marched 
to Talavera, caught Spanish bandits, the terror of the 
countryside, and won credit for it. So 1810 and 1811 were 
passed in marching and fighting the French at Fuentes 
d'Onoro. 

In 1812 he was at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, and 
soon after of Badajos ; and while he and his friends were 
lamenting over the atrocities committed by our soldiers, 
when drunk, upon the defenceless citizens, two young ladies 
approached their tent. The elder threw back her mantilla, 
and told the English officers that she and her young sister, 
scarce fourteen years old, were of an honourable family ; yes- 
terday they lived in a splendid home, to-day they had neither 
house nor change of raiment. Their house had been wrecked, 
she said, by the soldiers ; and then the lady showed how the 
blood still trickled down their necks from wounds caused by 
the forcible tearing of their ear-rings through the flesh. 

" I come to you British officers for protection ; so great is 
my faith in your national character, I think my appeal will 
not be in vain." 

The younger girl, fresh from her convent school, blushed 
and looked so charming that two of the English officers fell 
violently in love with her ; bat Harry Smith at once offered 
to marry her, if she would trust herself to his hon our. She 
was married to him as soon as possible, became the pet of 

217 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

the regiment, rode with the force to battlefield after battle- 
field, and finally gave her name to Ladysmith in Natal. 

"From that day to this,'" Sir Harry writes, "she has 
been my guardian angel ; she has shared with me the dangers 
and privations, the hardships and fatigues of war, in every 
quarter of the globe. No murmur has ever escaped her." 

Harry Smith was only twenty-two when he ventured to 
take an unknown lady for his wife ; but they became devoted 
to each other, and Juana always helped her husband to do 
his military duties well. Once, when her horse slipped 
upon a greasy bank, Juana broke a small bone in her foot. 
Her husband wished her to stay behind till she was cured, but 
she laughed and said, " Get me a mule or an ass, and put 
a Spanish saddle for a lady on it — for go I will ! " 

After peace was made with the French, Harry Smith was 
put down for service in America as major of brigade, but 
his wife was to go to England with Harry's brother, Tom. 
After assisting at the capture of Washington, Smith was sent 
home with despatches. 

On reaching London he sought out his wife's lodgings in 
Panton Square. His hand was on the window of the coach, 
as he looked for her number, when he heard a shrill cry, 
" Oh Dios ! la mano de mi Enrique ! " and the parted were 
once more in each other's arms, blissful and happy. 

Next came a long interview with the Prince Regent, to 
whom he had to narrate all the details of the war. 

" Bathurst, don't forget this officer's promotion," said the 
prince, as he rose to leave the room, "a most affable interview." 

When, a few days later, Juana met her husband's father, 

she delighted the old gentleman by bounding into his arms. 

She was then eighteen, had dark eyes, a lovely figure, and a 

voice sweet and silvery ; she sang and danced beautifully, was 

animated and intelligent, full of fun and sparkle, yet a good 

listener. 

218 



MASTER OF MEN 

After America came the Waterloo campaign, to which 
Juana went with her husband. At Ghent they found 
Louis XVIII. and his court, who was very pleased to see and 
thank the English officers. 

On the morning of the 18th of June, Major Smith's wife 
rode to Brussels with West, their faithful soldier-servant. 
Her daring ride, full gallop, we cannot now describe. But 
we must tell how, on hearing from some Riflemen that 
Brigade-Major Smith of the 95th was killed at Waterloo, 
this brave girl mounted " Brass Mare " and rode to the 
battlefield. " In my agony of woe," she says, "I approached 
the awful field of Sunday's carnage, in mad search of 
Enrique." Across and across that plain rode the desperate 
wife, asking officers and gazing upon the dead in suspense 
and despair. "He has been buried, and I shall never see 
him again ! " she kept murmuring to herself. At last she 
met an old friend, Charlie Gore, A.D.C. to Sir James Kempt, 
and cried to him, " Oh ! where is my Enrique, Charlie ? " 

" Why I near Bavay by this time, as well as ever he was 
in his life : not wounded even, nor either of his brothers." 

" Oh ! Charlie, why thus deceive me ? The soldiers told 
me " 

" Dearest Juana, believe me ; it is poor Charles Smyth, 
Pack's brigade-major. I swear to you, on my honour, I left 
Harry riding ' Lochinvar ' in perfect health, but very anxious 
about you." 

" Then God has heard my prayer," she sobbed, and cried 
for very joy. 

The lady had been on horseback from 3 a.m., and had 
ridden sixty miles when she and Gore arrived at Mons. 
Next day the faithful wife found her husband, and all was 
well with her. 

After Waterloo their fortunes led them to Nova Scotia, 
and then to Jamaica ; where, one day, a letter came from 

219 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

Lord Fitzroy Somerset to say the duke had appointed Smith 
deputy quartermaster-general at the Cape of Good Hope. 
So off they sail again for England, visited Whittlesea for a 
few hours, and took ship again for the Cape. 

This was in 1829. The governor then was Sir Lowry Cole, 
and Colonel Smith had old friends in John Bell and his wife, 
Lady Catherine, who entertained them for a time. 

As the Kaffirs were restless, the governor went to the 
frontier, while Smith taught the troops at Cape Town to 
shoot and do camp duty. There was excellent hunting, and 
a splendid breed of horses from mares imported by Lord 
Charles Somerset, and Smith bought some fine hunters for 
himself and his wife. It was a quiet time of peace for them 
to the end of 1834, in which they lived healthy lives, and 
enjoyed the friendship of worthy people : not the least 
worthy being the new governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, from 
whom the port of Durban is named — "the most educated 
and accomplished soldier I have ever served with, 11 says Smith. 

At last the Kaffir tribes burst into the colony with an 
irresistible rush, robbing and murdering men and women, and 
spoiling all the farms. 

"Colonel, I give you full powers, civil and military, 11 
said his Excellency, Sir B. D'Urban, " and a sloop of war is 
ready to take you to Algoa Bay. 11 

But Colonel Smith preferred riding post, and the horses 
were laid for him for a seven days 1 ride of 600 miles. 

The 72nd Regiment went by sea, some by waggons 
overland. 

On the 1st of January 1835, with his orders, warrants, 
&c, sewed in his jackets by his faithful wife, the colonel 
started with one Hottentot for a ride of ninety miles. He 
changed horses at the end of twenty-five miles, and felt tired 
from the anxiety and exertion of running from store to 
store the previous day ; but a cup of tea at the post-house 

220 



MASTER OF MEN 

revived him. He got to Caledon at one o'clock ; a thunder- 
storm came on, but by the time he reached his last stage he 
was dry. 

The second day he rode a four-year-old thirty miles in 
two hours and twenty minutes, crossing a big river in the 
course. 

The third day he had a hundred miles to do. At the 
second stage there was no horse ready for him for an hour. 
When he rode into George at the end of his stage he found 
all the notables assembled to meet him. He soon got rid of 
them, and took a hot bath and lay down to sleep. 

The fourth day was tremendous work, over mountains 
and gullies. Half-way he met the mail from Grahamstown, 
opened his letters, and found that the news of disaster and 
pillage was awful. 

" I must get to Grahamstown in two days instead of in 
three." 

The fifth day he was off two hours before daylight. One 
winding river he had to cross seven times, and was drenched 
to the skin. Then his horse knocked up, and lay down 
groaning. Smith saw a Dutch camp near, and went up to 
the farmer, who with his family and flocks was fleeing from 
the Kaffirs. 

"I am Colonel Smith, going to Grahamstown to take 
command against the Kaffirs. I want you to lend me a 
horse ; mine is done." 

The farmer made difficulties, and at last refused to lend 
one. As he was then holding a nice-looking horse, ready 
saddled, the colonel said, " I am going to take this one. 
What ! then down you go ! " 

The big Boer fell backwards from the blow, and Smith 
rode away. 

As he reached a ferry the Boer, who had ridden hard 
after him, came up to apologise. " I did not believe you 

221 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

were what you said, till I spoke to the guide who rode with 
you. I am very sorry, sir." 

At five in the afternoon he had reached Uitenhage, 
having been engaged in urging grass-fed horses from three 
in the morning, and having ridden over bad and mountainous 
roads 140 miles ! 

To his horror the civil commissioner had all the town 
turned out to receive him, and a large dinner-party prepared 
to refresh him ! 

He sat down, but dared not eat, to his host's astonishment ; 
then off to bed, where he dictated letters until midnight. 

Next morning off early, meeting colonists fleeing in panic 
all along the road. Ten miles from Grahamstown there was 
waiting for him a neat little hack of Colonel Somerset's. 
We must quote his words on the joy of it. 

" I shall never forget the luxury of getting on this little 
horse ; a positive redemption from an abject state of misery 
and labour. In ten minutes I was perfectly revived, and in 
forty minutes was close to the barrier of Grahamstown, fresh 
enough to have fought a general action, after a ride of 600 
miles in six days on Dutch horses living in the fields without 
a grain of corn. ,, 

The colonel had ridden each day at the rate of fourteen 
miles an hour, and tells us he had not the slightest scratch 
on his skin. 

The streets were barricaded, some three deep ; men wear- 
ing a look of consternation were going about with gun and 
sword ; panic reigned supreme. 

The Colonel sent for the civil commissioner, Captain 

Campbell, and learnt all the news of the remorseless raid of 

the black men and the despondency of the whites. 

" Very well ; I clearly see my way. To-morrow I shall 

proclaim martial law, and woe betide the man who is not as 

obedient as a soldier.'" 

222 



MASTER OF MEN 

The regular troops in the town were 700, the civil force 
850 ; the 72nd would arrive in a few days 1 time. Colonel 
Smith resolved to strike a blow at the Kaffirs in their own 
country, reoccupy Fort Wiltshire, and rescue the missionaries 
who were in a house called " Lonsdale," in Kaffirland. He 
then directed all able males to be formed into a corps of 
volunteers, and issued them arms. 

At a meeting to organise the corps, one of those gentle- 
men who think to mend the world by talking got up and 
argued against the colonel. In a voice of thunder Colonel 
Smith shouted, " I am not sent here to argue, but to com- 
mand. You are now under martial law, and the first gentle- 
man, I care not who he may be, who does not promptly obey 
my command, he shall not even dare to give an opinion. I 
will try him by a court-martial, and punish him in five 
minutes. " 

There and then they saw with what manner of man they 
had to deal ; no further opposition was ever raised to his 
wishes. 

The very first evening after this, men felt confidence and 
were busy in making the changes necessary in their military 
defences. 

Three hundred men were sent to attack the kraal of the 
old chief, Eno ; Fort Wiltshire was occupied ; Major Cox 
was sent to rescue the families of the seven missionaries, 
which he performed with success. On his return, having 
to swim the Fish River with his bridle in one hand, he 
found the governor, Sir B. D'Urban, had arrived. Next 
day the governor issued a general order thanking Colonel 
Smith for his services in saving the colony from a savage 
enemy ; he spoke of his magnificent ride and his exertions 
to afford protection and restore confidence and organise a 
force of defence as being beyond all praise. 

Smith was made chief of the staff, and authorised to 
223 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

organise a force for active operations, and at once set about 
forming two corps of Hottentots, who rapidly trained into 
first-rate soldiers, and did good work amongst the thorny 
ravines. For the colonel completely scoured the holds and 
fastnesses of the Kaffirs, securing more than 5000 head of 
colonial cattle in one part and 2000 fat beasts in another. 

In a letter to his wife, dated January 30, 1835, the 
colonel writes : " The Kaffirs now fly from the sight of one of 
our people. ... So you recommend shrapnel, grape, shells ! 
Well done ! We will take your advice, for old Johnstone 
says true, you are the best general he knows ! M And in 
another letter : "Mi queridissima muger (my dearest wife), I 
have been in the field since Saturday last, sleeping in the 
bush — never better. Was on horseback yesterday twenty- 
eight hours ; attacked the Kaffirs at five points like fun, and 
gave them a good licking with a trifling loss on our part. . . . 
God bless you, old woman, and do not be afraid for me. 
Our God will take care of us both. Adios, alma mia. 11 
And again : " Yesterday morning I desired the bugler to 

blow the 'rouse. 1 He said he did not know it. 'D 

you, sir, blow something, 1 I roared. So he blew up a 
quadrille, and I began to dance. I thought Halifax would 
have laughed till he died ! It is very delightful to 
unbend. 11 

Hintza was a very powerful chief, who had sent no decided 
answer to offers of peace ; he was very astute, had taken 
much colonial cattle, and had oppressed the Fingoes, whom 
he had promised to protect. Hintza went so far as to dine 
with the colonel, and accepted terms of peace ; but the cattle 
were never restored, though Hintza, kept as a hostage, was 
being treated with great kindness. 

At last Hintza escaped, and was shot as he ran, though 

he had been warned that if he attempted flight this would be 

his end. 

224 



MASTER OF MEN 

It required all Smiths vigilance and craft to elude the 
swarms of savages who surrounded his little army and 
screeched their war-cries. In seven days he had marched 
218 miles over mountains and across deep rivers, had 
collected 3000 captured cattle, and 1000 Fingoes, who 
had fled to him for protection. 

Sir B. D'Urban again thanked him in a general order for 
his military skill and activity in checking the savages and in 
rescuing from destruction so many of the Fingoe race. 

This was the opinion of the " man on the spot," but in 
England the Minister of the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, being 
persuaded by a returned missionary, who thought the natives 
were always being wronged, sent a letter of rebuke and re- 
call to the colonel. Smith was naturally very indignant, 
because he had done his best not only to control, but also to 
make the Kaffirs like him, and many tribes did like him and 
called him their "white father." 

" I did not expect," he says, " to be called a bloodthirsty 
murderer in every print in every quarter of our dominions, or 
to be shamefully abandoned by the minister whose duty it 
was to have supported me against the misled voice of the 
public . . . when I had so faithfully, so zealously, and so 
energetically saved for him the colony of the Cape." It is 
true Lord Glenelg afterwards acknowledged his error, but 
mud sticks and leaves a stain which no whitewash of apology 
can conceal. However, Lord Glenelg's recall had not yet 
arrived, and Smith was appointed to the command of the 
province of Queen Adelaide, and set himself to maintain 
order and do justice to all. 

But the Lady J nana wanted to join her lord ! 

One of the judge's circuit waggons was placed at her dis- 
posal, and she, with her maid, dogs, and two servants, started 
for Grahamstown. This plucky lady travelled at the rate of 
seventy miles a day in a jolting, springless waggon, stopping 

»5 p 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.R 

for the night at the house of some Dutch family ; these all 
gave her every attention, for they knew how her husband 
had saved their lives and all they had. At King Williams- 
town husband and wife met, and lived under canvas near the 
Fingoes. Smith's last letter to her was dated June 24th : 
"I do nothing at night but lie and listen, hoping every 
moment to hear the footsteps of horses crossing the ford. . . . 
Oh ! dare I hope it, my own dearest, that this night I shall 
receive thee ? " 

The greatest opposition to Smith's government of the 
Kaffirs came from the witch-doctors and the rain-makers, 
who were always close in the confidence of their chiefs. 

If a chief wishes to rob or kill one of his own men he 
sends for the witch-doctor ; a witch-dance is called, and an 
old hag, perfectly naked, comes forth and stands in the 
centre of the people, who dance around her. After some 
gesticulations the hag goes round, and at last smells out the 
man whom the chief has secretly accused. If he be rich in 
herds "he is eaten up " ; that is, he is robbed of all. If 
poor, he is thrown to the ground, his legs apart and fully ex- 
tended, and black ants are thrown upon him ; so he is pain- 
fully stung to death. Smith had more than 100,000 savages 
to reclaim, men who had no knowledge of right and wrong 
except as power or self-will dictated. He in many cases 
appointed the sorcerers and rain-makers magistrates over 
their tribes, and instituted a native police ; each police officer 
carried a long stick with a brass knob, an emblem of power. 

The chief rain-maker was rather difficult to appease, so 
one day in January 1836 the colonel called a great assembly 
of Kaffirs and all the rain-makers to have a friendly discussion. 

" So you can make rain, can you ? " the colonel said ; 
and then, " Speak out ; speak freely to your father." 

The great rain-maker stepped forward and said, " I can 
make rain, 11 

m 



r 



r 



% % 




> yffeghJl. 



Smith and the Rain-makers 

"If the water in this glass is of the same nature as the rain you invoke, I desire 
you to put water again in the glass." 



MASTER OF MEN 

The colonel pointed to his table, on which were knives, 
scissors, clothes, boots, &c., and elicited from the rain-makers 
that they could not make these things. He then called for 
a tumbler of water. 

" Is the water in this glass of the same nature as the 
rain you invoke ? " 

They all said " Yes," and began to show intense anxiety. 

Then Smith threw the water on the dry ground and said, 
" I desire you to put water again in the glass." 

They looked at one another in consternation. " Father, 
we cannot." 

In a voice of thunder the colonel commanded, " Put the 
rain again in this glass, I say ! " 

They stood dumb and confused. 

Then the colonel turned to the assembled Kaffirs and 
said, " You see how these imposters have deceived you. 
Now listen to the Word. Any man of my children who shall 
believe in witchcraft, or that any but God, the Great Spirit, 
can make rain, I will eat him up ! " So the colonel left 
them in great awe and confusion. But soon after he sent 
the rain-makers presents, and told them he should expect 
them to assist in making true and good laws. 

In fact this soldier, with the help of the missionaries, 
was rapidly teaching these children of the wild to love their 
neighbours. 

The Kaffirs and Zulus are the most comely of all the 
black nations. Their eyes are large and lovely in expression, 
their figures moulded to perfection ; they walk like stags on 
the mountain-side, and dressed in the karosse, a bullock-skin 
made pliant and soft and ornamented by beads or fur, they 
have a stately appearance. They, as well as the Hottentots, 
are extremely fond of music, and when a band is playing 
they will stand absorbed in the feeling aroused by the tones, 
dance and sing, or burst into tears. 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

But in the midst of Colonel Smith's attempts at improve- 
ment of their moral nature he received from Lord Glenelg 
a letter of recall. He was accused of murdering Hintza and 
of oppressing the natives, and Captain Storkenstrom was 
appointed to his command. 

When the Kaffirs heard of the change the chiefs came to 
Smith and said, " Ah ! you English ! ever changing your ways 
with us ; we were happy, never so protected ; now it will be 
war again " ; and the Kaffir folk said, " Evil comes now ; for 
our chiefs will eat us up as before.'" 

They went down to Cape Town together, Colonel Smith 
and his wife, and friends came out in shoals to meet them. 

A public meeting resolved, " That as the zealous, humane, 
and enlightened administration of Colonel Smith during the 
time he commanded on the frontier merits the gratitude and 
thanks of the colonists at large, we hereby invite him to a 
public dinner. " 

When the news came to England that all the colonists, 
English and Dutch, alike regretted Smith's removal ; and 
when it was told how the Dutch farmers were trekking north 
in hundreds because they saw no hope of being protected 
from the overwhelming mass of black men, then Lord Glenelg 
wrote Smith a complimentary letter. 

But a better salve for his wound soon came in his 
appointment to the post of adjutant-general to her Majesty's 
forces in India. 

In five days after receiving the gazette they were off to 
Calcutta. We cannot follow his movements and doings, 
though they were the most important of all his lifetime. 
His wound was quite healed when he received a kind letter 
from the Duke of Wellington to say that her Majesty, upon 
his recommendation, had appointed him K.C.B. 

In the Sikh war Smith added to his laurels, being present 
at several battles. For his part in the victory of Aliwal he 



MASTER OF MEN 

was thanked by Sir Henry Hardinge and by the English 
Parliament ; and by the great duke in the House of Lords 
he was unreservedly praised. The Queen bestowed on him a 
baronetcy of the United Kingdom and a G.C.B. 

In a letter to his sister, Mrs. Sargant, he describes the 
battle of Aliwal : " By dint of the hardest fighting I ever 
saw (except Badajos and Waterloo), I carried the entrench- 
ments. By Jupiter ! the enemy were within a hairbreadth 
of driving me back ; their numbers exceeded mine ... for 
twenty-five minutes I could barely hold my own. Mixed 
together — swords and targets against bayonets, and a fire on 
both sides ; then such a scene of shooting men fording a deep 
river — the bodies made a bridge, but the fire of our musketry 
and guns killed every one who rushed. The hand of Almighty 
God has been upon me, for I may say to you I was foremost 
in the fight, and on a noble horse the whole time, which 
sprang over the enemy's works like a deer, neither he nor I 
nor my clothes being scratched ! It is a miracle for which I 
am grateful to my God." 

His despatch on the battle of Aliwal was much admired. 
Sir Robert Peel said of it, " The hand that held the pen used 
it with the same success with which it wielded the sword." 

Smith's friend, Major-General C. Beckwith, wrote to him 
from Turin, rejoicing in his success : "But what did Juana 
do in all this row ? Was she on horseback ' abaso de los 
canonacos ? ' Give my kind love to her." 

In April 1847 they returned to England and were feted 
by all the great and noble, and by the old Whittlesea friends, 
whom Sir Harry never forgot. But a man so energetic was 
not allowed to rust long, for in a few months he was ap- 
pointed governor of the Cape of Good Hope. 

Another Kaffir war was in progress, and his nomination 
was hailed with general delight. Sir Harry and Lady Smith 
arrived at Table Bay on 1st December 1847, and the town 

229 



SIR HARRY SMITH, G.C.B. 

was illuminated in their honour. Previous governors had, 
by orders from home, treated the Kaffirs as enlightened 
politicians, and arranged convenient treaties with the chiefs. 
But the result had been wars and the trekking of the Dutch 
into far countries away from civilised interference. 

Sir Harry started on the 11th for the frontier. At Port 
Elizabeth he saw the chief Macomo, scolded him for his 
treachery, and said, as he put his foot upon the chiefs neck, 
" This is to teach you that I am come hither to show Kaffir- 
land that I am chief and master here." 

At Grahamstown he released the captive chief Sandili, 
and sent him the baton of office as a British magistrate. 

On the 19th Pato submitted, and the Kaffir war was 
ended. 

At King Williamstown he received 2000 Kaffirs, whose 
chiefs kissed his foot as they made their submission. 

But Pretorius and the Boers were ill-satisfied with the 
arrangements made, and revolted ; the battle of Boomplaats 
was the result, and the Boers were repressed. Another 
difficulty was caused by Lord Grey having ordered convicts 
to be transported to the Cape. The whole colony was madly 
averse to the scheme ; and in 1850, after the governor had 
sent home the 1st battalion Rifle Brigade, the Kaffirs again 
showed signs of unrest. 

A long and harassing war followed, and many losses were 
sustained. The Government in England thought it must be 
the general's fault ; and though the Duke of Wellington said 
in the House of Lords, " I entirely approve of all Sir Harry 
Smith's operations ... I have observed no serious error," 
yet there were civilians who knew better ; and Lord Grey 
sent a despatch in January 1852, recalling him "for want 
of energy and judgment ! " 

But the people who lived on the spot knew what their 
governor had done or attempted to do ; triumphal arches 

230 



MASTER OF MEN 

were erected at Cape Town, and all poured forth to honour 
the veteran soldier — their best friend. 

Chase spoke of him as " the eagle-eyed and ubiquitous, a 
better general than statesman ... a devout and religious 
man. 1 ' 

Harrismith, over the Orange River, was founded in 1849, 
and Ladysmith, in Natal, in 1851, both in honour of Sir 
Harry and his wife. 

In England he was welcomed as a hero beyond reproach — 
a hero twice recalled from South Africa with some ignominy. 

But he never lost heart ; he had done his very best, and 
England learnt it from the general voice of the colonists. 

After more honourable appointments at home, he died 
in his 73rd year from an attack of angina pectoris, and was 
buried at Whittlesea. Lady Smith lived to an advanced 
age, beloved by all. 1 

1 The author's thanks are due to Mr. G. C. Moore Smith, the editor, and 
Mr. John Murray, the publisher, of Sir Harry Smith's autobiography, for 
leave to quote some of the letters therein, and to relate some part of Sir 
Harry's life. 



CHAPTER XIII 

CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

THERE have been many heroes of white blood in Africa, 
and it is impossible even to mention all their names ; 
but two young officers, J. R. M. Chard, R.E., and 
Lieutenant Bromhead of the 24th Regiment, demand some 
recognition ; for by the defence of Rorke's Drift on the 
Buffalo River against 4000 Zulus madly confident of victory, 
they saved Natal from a disaster of terrible magnitude. 

As early as 1810 Natal had been laid waste by a Zulu 
king, Chaka, and the few white settlers found the country 
almost depopulated. 

In 1828 Chaka was assassinated by his brother Dingaan, 
who soon began to butcher the first Dutch pioneers, as well 
as his own people. At last Dingaan's brother defeated him 
by the help of the Dutch, and ruled in his stead, keeping 
the peace. 

At Panda's death his son Cetewayo succeeded him, and 
promptly indulged his young warriors in their desire "to 
wash their spears. 1 ' He drilled his men carefully, and his 
army became a school of splendid athletes ; unconquerable, 
if only they had possessed better weapons. The young 
men were not allowed to marry until they had fought 
some enemy and won the king's permission : this fed their 
thirst for war. 

In 1875 Cetewayo went through the form of coronation 
at the hands of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and avowed 
friendship for the English. His quarrel at that time was 

232 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

with the Boers who held the Transvaal ; and we cannot 
help feeling a sympathy for a strong and lusty people who 
saw with indignation their territory being taken from them 
bit by bit. 

But in 1877 the English annexed the Transvaal, and 
from that time the Zulu king began to show hostility to us. 

The lieutenant-governor of Natal, Sir Henry Bulwer, 
addressed Cetewayo on his cruelty and was defiantly 
answered, "I shall kill my people if I like." 

Sir Bartle Frere, governor of the Cape Colony, went to 
Pietermaritzburg and conferred with Sir Henry Bulwer in 
September 1878. All who knew the condition of affairs 
agreed that the Zulu nation was a menace to the settlers, 
and Sir Bartle Frere therefore sent the king an ultimatum : 
he was to disband his army and receive a British Resident. 

Lord Chelmsford, then in command of our forces, 
declared that Natal could only be protected by taking 
the offensive. 

No reply came from Cetewayo, and Lord Chelmsford 
crossed the frontier between the 5th and 11th of January 
1879, meeting no opposition. The Zulu army consisted 
of about 50,000 men, from the early age of fourteen up to 
old men. They were divided into twelve corps, each of 
which had two wings and was subdivided into companies 
of fifty men each. The chief distinction was between 
married and unmarried men ; no one might marry before 
forty years of age, and with the king's permission. 

The men of a married regiment shaved the crown of 
the head and wore an iron ring round the temples ; they 
also carried white shields. 

In battle it was usual for the reserve force to sit with 
their backs to the enemy. Their chief weapon was the 
assegai, a short spear ; but many had muskets and rifles. 
The third camping-ground of the British army was on 

233 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

the slope of a hill facing a valley on one side, and having 
a precipitous hill behind them : it was the eastern side of 
Isandhlwana, or Little Hand, a name of bitter memories. 
The waggons were left between the camp and the hill, and 
the headquarters tents were pitched behind the waggons 
at the foot of the hill. As the mounted patrols had not 
reported the presence of any Zulus near, no laager was 
formed, no shelter trench was made round the camp. 

That night as the men sat round their fires they were 
discussing the chances of a fight on the morrow down the 
valley some ten miles off ; they little thought of the disaster 
so near at hand, and envied some sixteen companies that 
started away at 4.30 a.m. to reconnoitre the way to Ulundi. 

Lord Chelmsford was riding about the country, and was 
not in camp under Isandhlwana ; but on Wednesday about 
noon he saw through his field-glasses large bodies of Zulus 
massed near that camp, and the sound of artillery fire was 
heard some ten miles off. Some Zulu prisoners, on hearing 
this, said to one another, " Do you hear ? there is fighting 
going on at the camp." 

Lord Chelmsford and his staff then rode up a hill from 
which he could see the camp ; the white tents were plainly 
visible in the sunshine, but all seemed quiet — it was now 
nearly two o^lock in the afternoon. 

A little later a mounted messenger sent off by Colonel 
Pulleine brought a note to Lord Chelmsford to say that the 
camp was being attacked by a large force of Zulus. Before 
three miles were traversed another mounted man was seen 
riding up in hot haste ; it proved to be Commandant Lonsdale, 
who had become separated from his corps as he was pursuing 
a mounted Zulu, and had ridden quietly back to camp at 
Isandhlwana. At about 2 p.m. when he was within 300 
yards of it he found it hemmed in by masses of yelling 
Zulus, and could barely turn his pony "Dot" and ride 

234 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

away. Major Gossett, A.D.C., was at once sent to fetch 
the rest of the column, and the staff awaited impatiently their 
arrival, while patrols rode in to say, " They are burning the 
tents, sir, and taking away waggons, oxen, and horses. " 

"Let us hope our men have fallen back on Rorke's 
Drift, 11 was the thought that suggested hope. By four o'clock 
the rest of the reconnoitring column had rejoined the general, 
who told the men briefly that the enemy had captured our 
camp, and they must retake it and open the road to Natal. 

By the time Lord Chelmsford was within a mile of the 
camp it was nearly dark, but they could see that many 
waggons had been dragged as a barrier across the mountain 
road. A few shots were fired, and they began to stumble 
over dead bodies lying thick and close in the hollows. But 
it was soon quite dark, and order was given to bivouac 
where they were ; yet even in the gloom they came upon 
sights of horror — friends stripped of all clothing, mutilated, 
disembowelled, beheaded ! 

On the surrounding hills fires were blazing, and in the 
direction of Rorke's Drift there was a bright blaze that 
attracted all eyes. 

The next morning revealed to the horrified soldiers a 
heartrending sight ! Dead bodies, white and native, lay 
about in clusters mixed with mutilated, groaning horses and 
oxen ; with these were mingled stores of food scattered and 
wasted, empty cartridge-cases and broken waggons. 

There had been about 900 men in camp ; some of these, 
it was learned afterwards, had escaped and passed by Rorke's 
Drift. They had not listened to the call to stay and help 
the little garrison, but fled on to Helpmakaar. 

From one who escaped we learn that the men in camp 
at Isandhlwana had heard some firing about 8 a.m. on the 
22nd of January, and soon after saw Zulus collecting in 
force to the north, The cattle were brought into camp by 

235 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

half-past ten, by which time Zulus were seen on a ridge 
about a mile and a half away. At eleven Colonel Durnford 
came in with 350 mounted men of the native contingent ; 
he soon rode off on the left flank of the enemy, but meeting 
a heavy fire retired. 

The line of the advancing Zulus was about two miles 
long, and they had to meet the fire of Durnford's men and 
our infantry. This checked them for nearly an hour ; for 
a donga, or deep ravine, formed a good shelter for the 
British force to shoot from. 

But the Zulus got round on either wing, and the British 
had to fall back on the camp. Two cannon were in action, 
firing rapidly some twenty rounds, but the Zulus said that 
most of the balls went over them ; and when a gap was made 
in their ranks the Zulus instantly filled it up. When the 
Carabineers began to run back to the camp, many Zulus were 
already mixed up with them and were using the assegai as 
they ran. The Carabineers made a strong stand inside the 
camp until their ammunition began to run short. Then 
they threw down their rifles and used their pistols and 
revolvers and bayonets. 

But the Zulus were all round the camp, and many inside 
it by one o'clock. The Union Jack in front of the general's 
tent was pulled down and torn to pieces. The remnants of 
the British force concentrated near the rear of the camp, 
but many were riding away over a low hill towards the 
Buffalo and Rorke's Drift, and some were trying to escape 
on foot. 

What with the smoke, dust, and shouting, it was a scene 
of confusion and surprises, for Zulus came running from all 
quarters and threw their assegais, but did not venture within 
reach of the deadly bayonet. One tall officer, the Zulus 
said, defended himself long after his comrades were stretched 
in death. He fired in every direction, turning at bay like a 

236 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

wounded stag. All who came near to stab him were shot or 
knocked over ; but at last he fell and was stripped to the 
waist. He wore gaiters, the Zulus said ; but who this hero 
was we cannot discover. 

Two of the young officers who died on that day were 
known to the writer when they were boys at school. One, 
the Honourable Captain Vereker, was a Westminster boy, 
famed at school for leading his comrades to charge the 
London roughs on the way to Vincent Square. The writer 
gave him his first lessons in the use of the pistol, little 
thinking of the dire extremity which should so soon find 
him, revolver in hand, facing a mob of yelling savages. 
Vereker, we are told, had just caught a stray horse and was 
in the act of mounting when a trooper came running up : 
" Beg pardon, sir, but that is my horse youVe got." " Oh ! 
is it? Here you are, man ! jump up quick ; I'll manage." 
So with Irish generosity and pluck the young officer gave up 
his only chance of safety, and stayed to meet the foe and 
die. The other officer had been a Harrow boy — a gentle, 
retiring boy, but a good long-distance runner. Adjutant 
Teignmouth Melvill, of the 24th Regiment, had resolved to 
attempt to get away with the colours, which he had wrapped 
round his body. Lieutenant Coghill, A.D.C., ran by his 
side, so that if one fell, the other might take them on to 
safety. 

They succeeded in getting through the encompassing Zulus, 
crossed the neck of rising ground and the little river, and 
settled down for a ten-mile spin over stony ground. But 
these two young men had been sighted leaving the camp, 
and a trail of four or five Zulus followed hard after them. 
Yet the Englishmen held their own and were gaining after 
three miles of hard running, when a party of Zulus, who had 
been posted to intercept fugitives, rose up and gave chase. 
Then the long-distance runners had to spurt again over the 

237 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

dry spruits, ant-bear holes, and stony plains, and across 
deep dongas, and past many a kopje and flat- topped 
mountain — ever panting and glancing askance at the 
abandoned waggons and the oxen assegaied in the yokes, 
and wondering if this terrible race would ever end. At last 
they reached a long slope covered with grass ; they could 
see the Buffalo shining before them, and there, on the 
opposite side of the river, was a fort held by English soldiers. 
They were going to save the colours after all ! No one saw 
how it happened ; but their dead bodies were found together 
about 300 yards on the Natal side of the river, lying 
amongst boulders ; in the bed of the river the colours were 
found somewhat torn. They are now restored to the 24th 
Regiment, and held in great honour. 

When the story was told to Queen Victoria, that tender- 
hearted lady sent the Victoria Cross to their sorrowing 
parents. Six months later our soldiers saw the camp of the 
Little Hand, Isandhlwana, where all the ground was still 
littered with papers, cheque-books, camp-beds, boots, and 
brushes ; even cricket-pads were lying there mixed up with 
ammunition-boxes, prayer-books, ox-hide shields, and empty 
cartridge-belts. 

There, too, clumps of tall yellow grass were still hiding 
dead bodies of men, horses, and oxen ; and kindly Nature was 
doing her best to conceal the tragedy of war, by sending up 
beautiful springing blades of green corn where the horses had 
once been picketed in their lines. A Zulu stated that the 
men who fought us at Rorke's Drift took no part in the 
Isandhlwana battle ; they were fresh men who came up later 
led by Dabulamansi, a brave rather than " slim " leader. 
For at Rorke's Drift a mere garrison of a hundred men, with 
a hastily erected fortification of biscuit-boxes and sacks of 
mealies, defended themselves successfully against 4000 Zulus 
one whole night, killing and wounding many hundreds. If 

238 










H.3 



•ITS 




M O 

« c 

b 









i>~ 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

the same care had been shown at Isandhlwana which was 
shown at Rorke's Drift, a great loss might have been spared. 
Major Spalding, having to go away to Helpmakaar, had left 
Rorke's Drift in command of Lieutenant J. R. M. Chard, R.E., 
on the fatal 22nd of January. The little garrison expected 
no attack, for they knew an English force under Lord 
Chelmsford had gone beyond them into Zululand. They 
were probably chafing at being left inert when others were 
engaged in active hostilities. But about 3.15 p.m., when 
Lieutenant Chard was at the ponts on the river, two men 
came riding down from Zululand at a gallop, and shouted, 
" Take us across ! " 

One of these was Lieutenant Adendorff, of Lonsdale's 
regiment. He quickly informed Lieutenant Chard of the 
great disaster at the camp, and that the Zulus were 
advancing on Rorke's Drift. 

" But if you will let me, 11 he added, " I will remain to 
assist you in your defence ; this Carabineer can ride to 
Helpmakaar with the news." Very soon after, Lieutenant 
Bromhead, who commanded a company of the 24th, sent 
Chard a message, asking him to come at once. 

Chard was then giving orders to inspan, strike tents out- 
side the buildings, and store all food in the waggons ; but 
he at once rode up to the commissariat stores to Bromhead, 
and found that a note had come in from the third column : 
" Enemy advancing in force against your post ; strengthen 
and hold it at all costs." 

Lieutenant Bromhead was already loopholing and barri- 
cading the store building and hospital, and connecting the 
two buildings by walls of mealie-bags and two waggons. 
Chard, Bromhead, and Dalton of the commissariat hurriedly 
exchanged views on the defences, and then Chard returned 
to the ponts, or ferry-punts, and brought up the guard — a 
sergeant and six men. 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

Sergeant Milne, 3rd Buffs, offered to moor the ponts in 
the middle of the stream and defend them from the deck 
with his six men. 

This was declined ; it was equivalent to laying down his 
life and those of his men. About 3.30 an officer came in 
from some of Durnford's Horse and asked for orders ; he was 
requested to send a detachment to watch the drifts or fords, 
to throw out outposts, and check the enemy as much as 
possible. 

Bromhead was posting his men and giving them their 
orders. 

About 4.20 the sound of firing was heard behind the hill 
to the south, and the officer of Durnford's returned and said, 
" The Zulus are close upon us ; my men will not obey orders, 
but are off to Helpmakaar — about a hundred of them." 

Shortly after, Captain Stephenson's detachment of Natal 
native contingent left the fort and rode away. 

" We must draw in our line of defence now," said Chard, 
and the biscuit-boxes were moved nearer in, till they had 
made a wall two boxes high. Soon after half-past four, 500 
Zulus came in sight round the hill to the south, and advanced 
running up to the south wall. 

The garrison fired through loopholes and killed many, 
but still on they came up to within fifty yards of the wall, 
when a cross fire from the store checked them. They took 
cover then, as they could, behind the ovens, and kept up a 
heavy fire, while most of the Zulus ran to the left round the 
hospital and rushed at the mealie-bags on the north-west 
wall, but were met by so heavy a fire that they hid in the 
bush around the fort. Others coming up lined the ledge of 
rocks and caves overlooking the fort on the south side, and 
occupied the gardens and bush in great force. 

The fire from the rocks compelled the garrison at 6 p.m. 
to retire behind the retrenchment of biscuit-boxes, 

240 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

But for some time the enemy had been trying to force a 
way into the hospital, which our men were defending room 
by room, while others were busy bringing out the sick who 
could be moved. 

There were many heroes fighting for England that after- 
noon ; it was not only Chard and Bromhead who saved 
Natal. Corporal Schiess greatly distinguished himself with 
the bayonet ; Privates Williams, Hook, R. Jones, and 
W. Jones, of the 24th, held their ground to the last ; 
though the hospital roof was blazing and crackling, they 
held the doorway with the bayonet, for their ammunition 
was already quite expended. 

But these, and some of the sick, were either burnt or 
stabbed. Chard in his report writes : " With most heartfelt 
sorrow I regret we could not save these poor fellows from 
their terrible fate." 

Mr. Dunne worked hard with others at converting two 
heaps of mealie-bags into a sort of redoubt, which gave a 
second line of fire all round. Then quickly it grew dark ; 
the works were completely surrounded by yelling Zulus, and 
the garrison retired to the inner wall of the kraal on the east 
side. Several assaults were made and vigorously repulsed up 
to midnight ; the light from the blazing hospital gave the 
garrison a chance to fire with good aim, and prevented the 
Zulus from coming out into the open. And ever the brave 
defenders kept on wondering if they could hold out till relief 
came, for they were sorely fatigued and exhausted. About 
4 a.m. on the 23rd the firing of the Zulus ceased ; and as the 
first grey dawn revealed river and hills and buildings, the 
garrison saw no sign of any enemy ; they had gone over the 
hill to the south-west. Then Chard ordered the grounds to 
be patrolled, the arms of the dead Zulus to be collected, and 
the defences to be strengthened. 

Surgeon Reynolds, A.M.D., had been busy all night 

241 Q 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

attending to the wounded under fire, but he could take no 
rest yet. 

For at 7 a.m. a large body of Zulus appeared on the 
hills, and it looked as if all had to be endured and fought 
over again. 

But the movements of the enemy showed indecision, 
which was explained about 8 a.m. by the appearance in the 
distance of the third column. Thus 139 men, of whom 
thirty-five were sick, had beaten off more than 3000 of the 
enemy, and had saved Natal from being overrun. The 
third column came on in fear and trembling, expecting to 
find the little garrison eaten up ; but the brave fellows, so 
glad to hear familiar sounds instead of the blood-curdling 
" Usutu ! " of the Zulus, put their caps on the end of their 
bayonets and gave a hearty British cheer. Then the third 
column hurrahed in response, and Rorke's Drift began hence- 
forth to bear an historic sound. 

To the names before-mentioned we ought to add that 
of the Prince Imperial of France, who came out in the 
Danube on 31st March to get some war experience, and was 
appointed A.D.C. to Lord Chelmsford. He was received 
with enthusiasm, being well known to many officers by reason 
of his having been a military student in England. 

The prince had applied for a commission in the British 
army, but this being refused him, he came as a volunteer, 
and in some sense was a guest of England. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison had been directed to see to 
his welfare, but the prince chafed under the restrictions im- 
posed on his actions, being prone to seek adventure, and 
desirous to see some real fighting in Africa. On the 1st of 
June 1879 the prince rode with Lieutenant Carey and six 
troopers of Bettington's Natal Horse and a native guide for 
the purpose of making sketches and selecting a camp. In 
the afternoon they off-saddled at a deserted kraal on the 

242 



HEROES OF RORKE'S DRIFT 

bank of the Ityotyozi River ; around them were mealie 
gardens and thick covers for an enemy. 

At a court-martial held by Colonel Glynn, C.B., evi- 
dence was given by Corporal Grubb, who said : "I was one 
of the escort on the 1st of June. When we arrived at the 
kraal the prince gave the word to ofF-saddle and let our 
horses out. The native guide, I, and Le Tock cooked some 
coffee. I then went away for a few minutes, and when I 
came back I heard the prince say, 'At four o'clock we 
will go.' 

" The native guide then came in and reported that he had 
seen a Zulu come over the hill. We got the order then to 
stand to our horses. I caught mine and saddled. The 
prince then gave the commands, ' Prepare to mount , and 
6 Mount.' I had not time to get my right foot into the 
stirrup before a volley was fired into us. I saw Lieutenant 
Carey put spurs to his horse ; I think all did the same. As 
we were galloping between the kraal and the donga I heard 
a bullet come whiz up, and it struck something. ... I saw 
Trooper Abel throw up his arms and fall back. . . . When 
Trooper le Tock passed me he said, ' Stick firm to your 
horse, boy, and put in the spurs ; the prince is down.' I 
glanced round, and saw the prince hanging to something, but 
below his horse — the stirrup-leather or the wallet ; the horse 
seemed to trample on him. . . . Soon I saw the prince's 
horse riderless alongside of me. I tried to catch it, but I 
could not, so I drove it before me. . . ." 

In cross-examination this witness said : " After the volley 
I glanced round and saw the Zulus were within ten or twelve 
yards and were advancing — -about fifty of them. . . . The 
prince was riding a very good horse — much better than any 
one else. . . . Every one seemed to gallop away from the 
kraal at the same time. . . . The prince's horse was saddled, 
and there was no reason to prevent his mounting. ... If 

243 



CHARD AND BROMHEAD 

we had remained and fired there, in my opinion, we should 
all have been killed. " 

We know now that the prince was an expert in mount- 
ing as his horse galloped, and in riding bareback, so that it 
was very unfortunate that for some reason he failed just when 
his life was in danger. It is clear that every one of the 
escort was for the moment only thinking of his own safety, 
and the poor prince was left to face the Zulus unaided. 
The feeling in the army and at home was much against the 
reputation of Carey and his troopers ; for though he believed 
that no effort of his could have saved the prince's life, the 
fact remains that they made no effort, and cantered back to 
camp with the news. The evidence showed that the prince 
had run beside his horse 250 yards until he reached the 
donga, where fourteen Zulus were seen following him. 

Surgeon-Major Scott stated in his evidence that at the 
request of Lord Chelmsford he went with a cavalry brigade 
to search for the prince's body. When he found it, the 
body was lying on its back with the left arm across, as though 
in a position of self-defence. He counted eighteen assegai 
wounds, all in front ; five of these would have been mortal. 
There were no bullet wounds, and no abrasions indicating 
that he had been dragged. The right eye had been pierced, 
and the body had been stripped ; only a fine gold chain 
round the neck, with a medallion and locket of his mother, 
which he wore next the skin, had escaped the notice of the 
Zulus ; for in the struggle the medallion and locket had got 
twisted behind his back. 

Four Lancers wrapped the body in a blanket and placed 
it reverently in the ambulance ; the two troopers and native 
guide were buried on the spot. On the same day, in the 
afternoon, the troops were formed up in a hollow square, 
resting on their arms reversed, waiting for the gun-carriage 
which bore the body. The six black horses emphasised the 

2U 



HEROES OF RORKES DRIFT 

feeling of sorrow which was felt by all ; the tricolour flag 
was cast over the remains in honour of France, and six 
officers of the Artillery, to which corps the prince had been 
attached at Woolwich, walked by the side as pall-bearers. 
Behind walked the Roman Catholic chaplain, and Lord 
Chelmsford as chief mourner, attended by his staff. 

The priest read the funeral service and scattered holy 
water, the troops presented arms ; and the body was taken 
back under a guard of honour, and left next morning for 
England and the sorrowing empress. 

So ended that scion of the Napoleonic dynasty in most 
piteous sort ; it was all so unnecessary, and a throwing away 
of a valuable life. The empress had confided her only son 
to our care, and we protected him not. 

In July Lord Chelmsford attacked Cetewayo and 15,000 
men at Ulundi. The Zulus got within two hundred yards 
of our hollow square, but then they were checked by a heavy 
and well -sustained fire ; a few bravely ran on to within a 
hundred yards, but were mowed down like grass. Then the 
square opened to let out the Lancers, who followed up the 
flying enemy with lance and sabre. The British force com- 
prised 5000 men and 14 guns — and the victory over the 
finest native race in Africa was followed up by the burning 
of the king's kraal and the capture of Cetewayo. Sir 
Garnet Wolseley had been sent to supersede Lord Chelms- 
ford, but the Zulu nation was broken before he joined the 
forces on the field. It was only left for him to catch the 
king and arrange terms of peace. 



245 



CHAPTER XIV 

COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

BURNABY, a giant in stature, a hero in courage and 
love of adventure, deserves to be remembered of his 
country men. "He was the only man whom I have 
ever met," said his old Harrow friend, H. H. Finch, " who 
was totally devoid of fear." He not only did audacious 
deeds ; he also wrote about them brightly and with humour. 
His Ride to Khiva, and his On Horseback through Asia 
Minor, almost take our breath away as we follow him 
through dangers of flood and field and mountain. He 
added greatly to the geographical knowledge of the time, 
and he was an enthusiast in ballooning. He spoke fluently 
as many as seven languages, including Spanish, Arabic, 
Russian, and Turkish. 

Fred Burnaby was born in March 1842 at the Old 
Rectory on the north side of St. Peter's Green, Bedford, 
where his father was rector. His mother was Harriet, 
daughter of Henry Villebois, Squire of Marham, in Norfolk. 

It was said that the Burnabys were descended from 
" Longshanks," the tall King Edward I. ; and Fred's six- 
feet-four in his stockings went to buttress that claim. 

His father was a stately and somewhat haughty rector, 
a fox-hunting parson of the old school, who used to drive 
to the racecourse in state, with footmen hanging to the 
loop-strap behind ; he mixed in all the county society, and 
visited at Woburn Abbey and Mentmore. 

It is said that Fred's love of adventure manifested itself 
246 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

very early ; for the old housekeeper, Mrs. Page, pronounced 
her charge to be of a most " contradictorious spirit," and 
had occasion more than once to pursue the embryo colonel 
in his little nightshirt, when he insisted on going with the 
big dog, Bessy, to evensong instead of to bed — much to the 
amusement of the boys who loitered at the church door. 

At the age of nine he was sent to Bedford Grammar 
School, in St. Paul's Square, where, when he won his first fight, 
his father took him into the study for a moral lecture, but 
with a twinkle in his eye gave his son a shilling instead. 
It was not done as his bishop might have wished it ; but the 
rectors of old times bred heroes like Cecil Rhodes, and we 
cannot afford to make light of their services ; for they 
taught their boys to love their country, and, if need be, 
to die for their country's honour. 

In January 1855, Fred Burnaby went to Harrow, and 
was placed in Middlemist's house. He was then a tall, thin 
boy, with a pale face and sluggish liver ; and he must have 
been rather surprised when his house-master, who had private 
reasons for being suspicious, said snappishly, " Boy, what are 
you looking at me like that for ? Go and write me out two 
hundred lines." 

However, he had a boy-friend in the house with him, 
and soon learned with Finch's guidance to take the rough 
with the smooth. 

A letter written in his first year at Harrow shows this. 

" My dear Papa, — I hope you are quite well. . . . Finch 
gave me a dinner yesterday at Fuller's ; at least, it was a 
kind of early tea, on a pheasant and some other things. 
There were three of us, and between us we finished him well. 
He was rather a large pheasant. Give my love to May and 
Annie. And now, with best love, I remain, your ever 
affectionate son, Frederick G. Burnaby." 

247 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

A little later Burnaby sent to Punch a letter, entitled, 
" The Toad under the Harrow, " in which he complained of 
the Harrow system of fagging. This brought him a repri- 
mand from the headmaster, Dr. Vaughan ; but Burnaby 
effected some reform in the house in the matter of bullying, 
for he was growing strong as well as tall, and had fought a 
battle successfully in " Milling Ground " against a boy two 
years his senior. He was still only thirteen when he rowed 
in a one-pair skiff from Windsor to Oxford on the Thames, 
and thence by canal to the Severn and Shrewsbury, and back 
again — a distance of six hundred miles, which took three 
weeks out of his holidays. 

At Harrow he learnt a good deal of French, but did not 
take kindly to Latin and Greek. 

His appetite seems to have been Gargantuan, for we hear 
of his walking once in Wales, and ordering goose and apple- 
tart. The boy sat down to his meal, for which he was to 
pay half-a-crown. The landlord looked in after a respectable 
lapse of time, and found only a few bare bones, and no tart 
left. 

" Very nicely cooked, I must say," muttered the boy, as 
he tendered the coin to the stupefied landlord. 

" Next time, sir, you come into these parts, please give 
my friend Jones, of the Red Lion, a turn, will you ? " 

He was sixteen years old when his father sent him to 
Dresden to study modern languages under Professor Hughes. 

In 1859 he returned to England, and passed the army 
examination with credit, and some months later was gazetted 
cornet in the Royal Horse Guards (Blues). 

As it was a time of peace, Burnaby devoted his energies 
to ballooning, dumb-bell exercises, and fencing. He soon 
became the strongest man in England, and many amusing 
stories of his feats were told, and came to the ears of the 
Prince of Wales. 

248 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

Once a horse-dealer brought two small ponies to Windsor 
to exhibit them to the queen. Some officers, thinking to 
have a joke at Burnaby 's expense, drove them upstairs to 
his room. 

Burnaby welcomed his guests with good humour, four- 
footed as well as two-footed ; but when the time came for 
the ponies to go down to be presented, they absolutely 
refused to budge. 

Then the practical jokers began to look glum. What 
would her Majesty think of the delay, and the cause of it ? 

Burnaby, however, solved the problem by taking up a 
pony under each arm and stumping downstairs with the 
little beasts at his side. He could bend a thick poker with 
his hands, and make it curl round his companion's neck, and 
again untwist it. 

One of his greatest friends was Mr. Thomas Gibson 
Bowles, in conjunction with whom a new society paper was 
started, called Vanity Fair ; but after three years of tumul- 
tuous editorship, Burnaby had to resign in obedience to the 
command of the Duke of Cambridge. 

In 1869 he travelled in Spain and Morocco. Next year 
he went to Russia and Italy, always bent on improving his 
languages. 

In 1873 he engaged his famous trooper-servant, George 
Radford, who went with him on his ride to Khiva ; but an 
attack of typhoid detained him in Spain. He made great 
friends with Don Carlos, the Pretender, and was present at 
several engagements and sieges. 

In 1874 the Times asked Burnaby to go with Gordon 
to the Sudan as their correspondent. 

He gleefully accepted, and started for Suakim from 
Suez in company with the Earl of Mayo, Sir W. Gordon 
Cumming, and other cheery comrades bent on shooting big 
game. 

249 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

At Suakim he joined a caravan of Arabs and twenty 
camels for Berber on the Nile. The attire of the Arabs was 
scanty, but their headgear was magnificent and lady- like. 
On their way they passed many skeletons of slaves and camels, 
and the vultures which were gorging on the remains were so 
fat and lazy that they hardly deigned to flop away ten yards 
as the caravan passed them. As they drew near Berber they 
met a slave caravan — a few handsomely dressed Arab mer- 
chants, slave boys and girls, aged from ten to sixteen years, 
and, in the rear, men armed with long whips and Nubian 
spears. 

On reaching Berber, Burnaby informed the governor, 
who sent out soldiers and brought back the slaves. 

Next day Burnaby went to see these slaves, and found 
twenty boys and eighteen women and girls, many of whom 
were dreadfully marked about the body by the fearful cour- 
bach, or whip ; but Burnaby doubted if their release would 
benefit the poor creatures much, seeing that the women 
would be given as wives to the Egyptian soldiers, and the 
boys enlisted in the army. Berber by moonlight was de- 
lightful, when the dirt was hidden and violet skies canopied 
the moving waters ; while merry Nubians sat in groups, 
drinking Merissa and listening to the wild notes of some 
love-song chanted to the accompaniment of the monotonous 
tom-tom. 

Hence he went by river southwards, past Meroe and 
Khartoum, seeing herds of gazelles and deer feeding under 
the trees, while hippopotami and crocodiles swarmed along 
the banks, and monkeys chattered and swung from branch 
to branch as the steamer went by. At Sobat, Burnaby found 
himself among a black race of splendid proportions, most of 
the men being six feet high, orderly and industrious, and 
ruled by a native governor appointed by Gordon. Burnaby 's 
six-feet-four at once made him a hero in their eyes, and when 

250 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

he smiled and tried to talk to them in Arabic and other bits 
of strange tongue their delight was a wonder to witness. 

In a few days the steamer Khedive, from Lardo, brought 
Gordon himself — Burnaby's greatest hero. The garrison drew 
up proudly, the bugler puffed out his loyal cheeks to give 
the salute, and the great general clasped hands with the 
Times correspondent. 

Burnaby's intimacy with Gordon tinged all his life, and 
henceforth his zeal for the man who was left alone at Khar- 
toum blazed forth in many a burning speech and letter. On 
returning to Khartoum, Burnaby accidentally saw in a news- 
paper that the Russian Government had ordered that no 
foreigner should be permitted to travel in Russian Asia. In 
a moment he made up his mind to ride to Khiva, as he had 
planned to do before. 

He returned to London, saw the Russian ambassador, 
who was doubtful about his being allowed to travel in Tar- 
tary ; but Burnaby provided himself with some letters to 
Russian generals, and started on 30th November 1875 for 
St. Petersburg. 

We cannot follow in detail his journey eastwards in a 
troika, or three-horse sleigh, through a frozen land ; then 
on horseback over snow-clad mountains, finding his hands 
frost-bitten and getting back the circulation with difficulty, 
when three Cossacks had plunged his arms into a tub of ice 
and water, and rubbed them with naphtha till the skin 
peeled off. 

At Khiva the Khan bade him welcome to his lovely city, 
set in a circle of orchards and amongst avenues of mulberry 
trees. 

Just as Burnaby was preparing to proceed to Bokhara he 
heard a telegram was awaiting him from the Duke of Cam- 
bridge requiring his presence. On his return to London he 
wrote his famous Ride to Khiva. 

251 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

But the very next spring he was off again on a Ride 
through Asia Minor with his soldier-servant Radford. 

In a letter to his mother from Erzeroum, February 1877, 
he writes : " It has been a hard journey ; over 13,000 miles, 
and all on horseback, in some places up to the horse's girths 
in mud." 

He rode past Mount Ararat, and returned by Batoum 
to Constantinople, thence to London to get his new book 
published. 

Of course everybody wanted to lionise the bold traveller, 
but Burnaby was off again in 1877 to Turkey, as " travelling 
agent to the Stafford House Committee," for war had broken 
out between Russia and Turkey, and surgeons were being 
sent out to the seat of war. 

But Burnaby, like young David of old, had come down 
to see the fighting. He was hardly dissuaded from making 
a foolhardy attempt to get through the Russian lines into 
Plevna ; but on the capitulation of Plevna he stood by his 
friend Valentine Baker, who commanded the Turkish rear- 
guard, and with seven guns against seventeen the brave 
little force resisted the Russian attack. " Sound the Turkish 
cry — the appeal to God ! " shouted Baker. The trumpeter 
blew, and the 2000 Turks shouted, " Allah-il- Allah ! " 

"It was a sensation worth feeling," wrote Burnaby, "and a 
thrill passed through my heart at the time ... it was grand 
to hear these 2400 Mahometans cheering back in defiance of 
those thirty picked battalions, the choicest troops of the Czar." 

In 1879 Burnaby married Miss Hawkins- Whitstead, of 
County Wicklow, and soon after took part in the Birming- 
ham election, where he humorously employed his great 
strength in lifting two interrupters up on to the platform 
and dropping them hard into a couple of kitchen chairs, 
with "You sit there, little man." After that his speech 
was a great success. 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

Ballooning and more travels in Spain and Tunis occupied 
his time till 1883, when news came of the destruction of the 
Egyptian army of Hicks Pasha in November ; and soon after 
a telegram came from General Baker's wife, asking him to 
come to Suakim and help her husband. 

So he started at once with Henry Storey, his soldier- 
servant, and startled and delighted Baker by walking un- 
announced into his tent. In a few days they were marching 
to the relief of Tokar with their motley crew of cowards. 
Three Arab horsemen were seen on the sky-line ; Baker's 
cavalry at once turned tail and galloped away ! 

Then the infantry broke and fled, though Baker, Burnaby, 
and Harvey did their best to rally them — 4000 well-armed 
men running away from a few hundred Arabs, who speared 
them like sheep. 

Storey had a narrow escape, but his horse saved him ; for, 
being a confirmed kicker, he cleared a circle round his rider, 
who managed to catch up with his colonel, running by the 
horse's side. 

" The wind was out of my body, sir, and the horse would 
not stand." 

Burnaby gave him a leg up, and they outdistanced the 
yelling foe. 

So ended the first battle of El-Teb in February 1884. 

Reinforcements came to Suakim — the 10th Hussars — 
and a second battle of El-Teb rather dismayed the Arabs. 
For they found that their enemy no longer ran away, but lay 
down flat and shot very straight and fast, having Gardners 
and Gatlings and fixed bayonets. 

Burnaby, in his shirt sleeves, was picking off with a shot- 
gun the enemy, who came on with mad and daring rushes. 
When the assault was made on the Arab fort, Burnaby was 
the first to reach the parapet ; there he was surrounded by 
half-a-dozen Arabs, and had to swing round his gun to 

253 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

defend himself. An Arab spear pierced his left arm, but 
just then a Gordon Highlander dashed in with his bayonet 
and saved him. On returning to Cairo, Burnaby was pre- 
sented by the Khedive with the Sudan medal and the 
Khedive Star. 

"There is one prayer in the Litany which I never 
repeat," said our hero to a friend in England on his 
return. 

"And what is that?" 

" ' From sudden death, good Lord deliver us ! ' 9 

People thought of that when they heard of his fate a 
year later. 

For a few months now he devoted himself to his regiment, 
the Blues. He tried to interest the men in ballooning and 
fencing, but some of the officers took offence at his caustic 
criticism of their card-playing and gambling and horse- 
racing. 

That soon passed, and they all finally learned to admire 
the man in him. 

In October 1884 his friends noticed that he was in 
ill-health ; but his humour had not yet forsaken him, for 
when a lady artist who was engaged on his portrait said, 
" Please close your eyes a moment, colonel, that I may take 
their measure," Burnaby replied solemnly, "I never close 
my eyes, madam, in the face of danger." 

When Lord Wolseley was chosen to lead the expedition 
in aid of Gordon at Khartoum, Burnaby applied for per- 
mission to take part in rescuing the hero he so much 
admired, and whom he had so passionately pressed the 
Government to succour in many platform speeches. 

But the authorities threw cold water on his schemes ; 
so he pretended he was about to spend his three months'' 
leave in South Africa. 

Then he said good-bye to his kinsfolk and little Harry, 
254 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

his son ; and turning to the footman, said, " Good-bye, 
Robert ; I shan't come back." 

A sense of coming death seemed to be over him ; for 
liver troubles and regimental worries were making him feel 
very melancholy. 

To his old friend, J. Gibson Bowles, he said, " I am very 
unhappy. I can't imagine why you care about life. I do 
not mean to come back." 

However, he left Victoria Station with his servant 
Buchanan in a merrier mood, and made first for Maloja in 
the Engadine, to bid adieu to his wife. A few days later 
he arrived at Alexandria and met Lord Wolseley, who 
placed him on the Intelligence Staff and gave him work 
as inspecting staff-officer to superintend the moving of the 
boats up the Nile. He had to ride over a long stretch 
of white sandy desert on camels that broke down several 
times ; but he did not tell his wife how he had chosen a 
wild, half-broken animal for his own mount. 

Colonel Lord Binning has recorded that this wild brute 
began by kicking himself clean out of the saddle, " throwing 
Burnaby from a great height to the ground. It was a 
wonder he was not killed ; as it was he was severely shaken, 
and it was some time before he recovered sufficiently to 
proceed." 

It was hard work when he got to the part appointed him, 
for the boats had to be carried sometimes two miles or more 
across the desert on men's shoulders. Each boat weighed 
eleven hundredweight, and her stores three and a half tons. 
He slept on the ground in a waterproof bag, and was up before 
daylight getting boats and soldiers across the cataracts. He 
writes to Mrs. Burnaby : " There is a strange mixture of 
people here — Arab camel-drivers, black Dongalese porters, 
Red Indians, Canadian boatmen, Greek interpreters ; soldiers 
of Egypt, Scotland, and Ireland — a babel of many tongues. 

255 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

The nights are cold, but on the whole I feel well. . . . The 
men have very hard work . . . yet you never hear a grumble, 
and they deserve the greatest praise. It is a responsible post 
which Lord Wolseley has given me here, with forty miles 
of the most difficult part of the river. I am very grateful 
to him for letting me have it, but I must say I shall be better 
pleased if he sends for me when the troops advance upon 
Khartoum." 

The last letter Burnaby ever wrote was dated Dal, 
December 28, 1884 :— 

"My darling Lizzie, — Have just received orders to 
move on to Korti . . . am very well : cold and cough dis- 
appeared — thanks to the Arab bedstead, which keeps my 
middle-aged bones off the ground. Buchanan very well and 
very useful. Lord Charles Beresford left this for Korti the 
day before yesterday : I hope to catch him up. . . . Jam 
three shillings a pot ! " 

On 8th January he reached Korti, and heard that, a few 
days before, an Arab messenger had brought in a slip of 
paper, two inches square, containing the cheery news : 
"Khartoum all right. Dec. 14.— C. G. Gordon." 

Next morning, Sir Redvers Buller, as chief of the staff, 
placed Burnaby in charge of a convoy of grain for Cadkul, 
and instructed him to join General Stewart's column if 
possible. 

Burnaby overtook Stewart's column at Cadkul and asked, 
" Am I in time for the fighting ? " 

He was in time, but Khartoum was not " all right. " 

Burnaby and Gordon were both drawing near the end of 
their life's span. 

Next morning, the 14th, Burnaby, on a grey polo pony 
named Moses, which Lieutenant Percival Marling had lent 
him, rode behind Beresford's mule until they came to a spot 
where the scouts reported signs of the enemy ahead. 

256 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

On the 15th they halted near a high hill, from which 
they could see with their glasses the banners and spears of 
the Arabs. 

The general ordered a zereba to be formed round the 
camp, consisting of prickly brushwood, biscuit-boxes, and 
saddles. The soldiers slept in their greatcoats, with bayonets 
fixed ready at hand. 

Colonel Lord Binning reports that he found Burnaby at 
his evening meal and in high spirits. Bennet Burleigh and 
Williams of the Chronicle were with him, and listening to 
his plan of keeping discipline in Metammeh, of which place 
he was to be appointed governor. 

On the 16th the column started before daybreak, only 
a few of the officers being mounted, owing to the difficulty 
of carrying forage. 

In the dark, part of the column went away to the left 
and caused delay. 

They halted near the foot of a rugged ridge on the 
route to Abu-Klea ; then General Stewart and his staff 
with Colonel Burnaby went forward to reconnoitre. On his 
return the general ordered a zereba to be formed, and placed 
pickets on the hills. 

The night was bitterly cold and dark ; the noise of the 
tom-toms got on the nerves of the men, and they could not 
sleep. On more than one occasion the whole force stood 
to their posts with bayonets fixed and eyes peering out for 
the approaching foe. 

Once they heard the tramp of a horse's feet coming close. 
As the men stood up they saw the end of a cigar glowing 
in the darkness, and a trooper exclaimed, " It must be the 
big colonel. " 

He was correct ; Burnaby was returning from a visit to 
the enemy's lines, and laughed cheerily when told how the 
men could not sleep for the alarms. 

257 r 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

" Ah ! never mind ! never mind ! boys will be boys," 
shouted Burnaby. 

The reproof was passed down the line, and the men felt 
ashamed of their nervousness, and there were no more alarms 
that night. 

But the enemy's sharpshooters were making the night 
very unpleasant, and several men were mortally wounded, 
besides camels ; for the poor creatures were tethered too 
close together. 

Sir Charles Wilson in his From Korti to Khartoum says 
that the camels showed no alarm, and did not seem to 
mind being hit. " One heard a heavy thud, and, looking 
round, saw a stream of blood oozing out of the wound ; but 
the camel went on chewing his cud as if nothing at all had 
happened, not even giving a slight wince to show he was in 
pain." At another time he tells us of a camel that had his 
lower jaw shot away, but he carried his load bravely to 
the end of the day ! 

There are many sorts of heroes in this world of ours, and 
there are men and women sensitive enough to appreciate 
heroic conduct, even though it be only in a dog, a horse, 
or a camel. When Burnaby, wrapped in his big pilot -jacket 
lined with astrakhan, returned from his solitary ride, he sat 
by the fire and chatted with Bennet Burleigh. 

" I have got to that stage of life," he observed, " when 
the two things that interest me most are war and politics, and 
I am equally exhilarated and happy whether holding up to 
odium an unworthy politician or fighting against my country's 
foes." 

They talked so loud and laughed so freely that Sir 
Herbert Stewart more than once said " Hush ! " 

" Well, Burnaby, if you won't sleep," said the general, 
"you'd better come with me to visit the various corps and 
outposts." 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

So they went together and heartened the men. 

" Don't fire to-morrow, boys, till you see the whites of 
their eyes. 11 

The whistling of the enemy's bullets overhead, and the 
sound of the tom-toms, now far and now near, kept the 
camp constantly on the alert. Fortunately a little dip in 
the ground protected the sleepers somewhat, but once, when 
a surgeon was performing an operation, the man who held 
the lantern carelessly turned it towards the hill occupied by 
the riflemen. The result was a sudden volley of bullets 
and a steady fire for some minutes. As Venus rose above 
the horizon all stood to their arms, for it had been declared 
that the Arabs generally attacked when that planet appeared. 
The men, shivering in the cold and breakfastless, had to wait 
more than an hour and a half, seeing their comrades picked 
off. Majors Gough and Dickson and Lieutenants Beech and 
Lyell were hit then, as they waited till the enemy were 
driven from the walls by an advanced detachment. 

It was still early when Burnaby rode up to Lord Cochrane 
(now Lord Dundonald), whose men were made up of the 1st 
and 2nd Life Guards and occupied a slight hollow, and asked 
if he might put his mount among them. As the two officers 
sat together on rising ground, a bullet whistled between 
them. 

"They seem to be hitting a good many of our men, 11 
said some one. 

" You can't make omelets without breaking eggs, 11 
observed Burnaby ; and later, in reply to another who sug- 
gested they should separate, Burnaby replied, " We may as 
well be killed here now as elsewhere later on. 11 

About 9 a.m. they halted, and a square was formed with 
the Guards on the right front and Mounted Infantry on the 
left, the Sussex Regiment on the right, and the Heavy 
Cavalry and Naval Brigade in the rear ; the centre was 

259 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

crowded with camels, litters, and guns. The firing 
soon became so effective (they were using Hicks Pasha's 
Remingtons) that all the camels were wounded, and they 
began to stumble and grunt and drag, so that a gap was 
left in the left rear of the square, where Burnaby was in 
command. Officers tried in vain to get the camels on 
faster, but the gap grew wider and wider ; for every time 
the square halted to return the fire with Martinis and 
screw-guns, some of the bleeding animals took the oppor- 
tunity to lie down, so that a big gap of sixty yards or more 
was established between the rear face and the rest of the 
square. 

Reports then came in that the enemy's scouts were 
coming round the hills above the left flank, so the 19th 
Hussars were sent to drive them back if possible. 

" Where's your double-barrelled shot-gun ? " Burleigh 
asked Burnaby. 

" Oh ! as the sentimentalists at home made such an out- 
cry at my using it at El-Teb, I have handed it over to my 
servant." 

" That was a mistake," said Burleigh ; " I should have 
seen them hanged first ; for those cruel devils of Dervishes 
give no quarter. It is not even the sword of Mahomet, 
but defilement and butchery in the name of the Mahdi. So, 
it's their lives or ours." 

" It is too late now," said the colonel. " I must take 
my chance." 

Meanwhile our men could see the long line of banners 
and the spear-heads glittering in the hot sunshine in the 
valley before them. Sir Herbert Stewart determined to 
take ground to the right along a gravelly ridge, in order to 
avoid the broken ground and nullahs in front. This was easy 
for disciplined men, but the camels again pressed on the rear 
and enlarged the gap, while some of them remained outside 

260 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

the square, sick and sorry ; amongst these was the camel 
carrying Lord St. Vincent. 

Meanwhile, just as the square got within about 200 yards 
of the flags in front, out of the ravine on the left suddenly 
rose a concealed body of Arabs in three phalanxes, each 
being led by an Emir with a banner and attendant warriors. 
They were three or four thousand strong, and advanced 
swiftly and silently ; then, with tom-toms beating and a 
tremendous shout of " Allah Akbah ! 11 they poured towards 
the gap in the square on our left, wheeling like a flock of 
pigeons as they spied the open side of the square. Enormous 
sheikhs in patched jibbehs, Dervishes, thick -necked Baggara 
from Nubia, woolly-haired savages with iron rings on neck 
and wrist — all swooped down together on the little square of 
1200 British soldiers ; but the Gatlings jammed at the critical 
moment, and half our men dared not use their rifles for fear 
they might hit our own skirmishers. 

Yet black masses of the enemy were mown down when 
they got within eighty yards, but others from the rear leapt 
over their bodies and came frantically on. To add to the 
confusion, part of our ammunition caught fire, and a deafen- 
ing explosion of cartridges made any orders inaudible. 

Burnaby, on his pony Moses, had restrained his command. 
" Don't fire yet, 11 he shouted ; " youll hit our men. 11 

Suddenly the enemy wheeled again to their right, spying 
the larger gap in our left rear, where Burnaby had advanced 
some men in order to bring them into action. But when he 
saw the change in the enemy's course he rode out and shouted 
" Retire ! " 

It was too late. A stately old sheikh on horseback rode 
at their head, with his banner in one hand and his prayer- 
book in the other. On he rode proudly, chanting his prayers, 
until he had planted his banner in the centre of our square 
behind the camels. There he was shot down, but hundreds 

261 



COLONEL FRED BURNABY 

of Arabs ran in and slashed their way round and under the 
camels ; the rear side of the square faced inwards and fired 
at the Arabs in the square, killing Sir Herbert's horse, and 
he narrowly escaped being shot himself. 

It was a soldier's fight — an Inkerman in miniature — 
friend and foe were mixed together, every man fighting for 
his own life. 

" For a moment," says Lord Binning, " I caught a 
glimpse of Burnaby through the smoke, his arm out- 
stretched, his four-barrelled Lancaster pistol in his hand. 11 

He was still riding Moses, and different accounts are 
given why he was outside the square. Some say that when 
he had ordered his men to fall back into their places he 
disdained to retire, and met the Arab onset single-handed. 
Others say he dashed out to the rescue of some of our 
skirmishers who were creeping back on hands and knees to 
avoid our fire, doing deadly execution with revolver and 
sword. 

But he was surrounded, and a spearman thrust a spear- 
blade into his throat. Then Burnaby leaned forward and 
parried the eight-foot weapon of the Moslem with his old 
smile, as he beat off the Arab's awkward lunges. But 
another Arab ran his spear into the colonel's shoulder ; and 
poor Moses, who had been stabbed in a dozen places, sank 
down under his rider. 

Still Burnaby was seen to rise, sword in hand, and slash 
wildly at the foe around him. By this time he was not 
alone, for Private Laporte had run out from the square and 
had bayonetted one Arab, while Corporal Mackintosh of 
the Blues, who had given up his stripes to follow his colonel, 
met his death in trying to defend him. So Burnaby, with 
half-a-dozen Arabs around him, struck for the last time at 
his country's foes " with the wild strokes of a proud, brave 
man dying hard," as Mr. Burleigh wrote. 

262 



LINGUIST, ATHLETE, AND RIDER 

At last he fell, like a giant of the forest toppling over 
smaller trees, and his own servant Buchanan caught him 
falling. Private Wood of the Grenadier Guards ran out, 
raised his head, and offered him water. 

"No, my man," murmured Burnaby, pushing back the 
bottle ; "look after yourself." 

Lord Binning ran to find his colonel, and saw a young 
private in the Bays, a mere lad, kneeling beside the fallen 
man. The lad turned, and, with tears running down his 
cheeks, cried simply, " Oh ! sir, here is the bravest man in 
England dying, and no one to help him." 

As Lord Binning took the hand of the dying man there 
was a feeble pressure, and at that moment there rang out 
the British cheers which told of the Arab repulse at last. 

A faint smile gleamed in the eyes and on the mouth of 
the dying man, and in a few moments he was no more. 

There he lay, quite thirty yards from the square, with 
his dead friends around him ; they had given their lives for 
the man they loved and admired so well. 

When it was all over, and the last Arabs who had feigned 
death had risen and been shot, consternation fell on the little 
force. Many of the men sat down and cried for their 
colonel ; for it was the privates who loved this man most. 
The junior officers, too, knew him as a friend and upright 
judge, but the men almost worshipped him. Some one 
wrote that " he was more fitted by nature to be the inspired 
leader of Turkoman hordes than the colonel of a crack 
regiment of Household Cavalry." Anyway, when the news 
of his death came to England, one and all, from Queen 
Victoria down to the meanest tramp, felt that we had 
lost one of our most gallant soldiers — and he was only forty- 
two years old ! 1 

1 From Mr. Wright's Life of Burnaby, by kind permission of Messrs. 
Everett & Co. 

263 



CHAPTER XV 

LIEUT. -COLONEL SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

THIS brilliant Etonian, who did so much for the Empire 
in Africa and died so young, at the age of thirty-two, 
deserves mention amongst the heroes of England. The 
Vandeleurs were of Norman origin, and settled in Ireland 
about 1660 ; many of Seymour's ancestors distinguished 
themselves in the army and became general officers. 

Seymour began to work as a boy ; his diary, begun at 
fifteen and kept up till the day of his death, proves how 
tenacious of will he was. 

But the mixture of French and Irish in his blood lent to 
his steadfast character a merry, cheerful tone, which endeared 
him to his comrades. He flung himself heart and soul into 
both work and play ; he never grumbled or grew despondent, 
however gloomy his surroundings. 

At school he was a keen volunteer ; he rode well, and 
sketched and made maps so excellently that he often obtained 
special posts on that ground. After leaving Eton he joined 
the Scots Guards, that school of soldierly duty, and for five 
years was employed in his regimental work, varied by games 
of polo, in which he excelled, and by training with the Black 
Watch at Aldershot. His spare time was mainly given to 
the flute and to learning German and Spanish. 

In December 1893, Seymour Vandeleur and his friend 
Cecil Lowther obtained four months 1 leave of absence to 
travel in Somaliland. Before starting, Seymour took lessons 
in the use of the sextant, and by this means was able to 

264 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

construct a map of Somaliland for the Royal Geographical 
Society. At Berbera, in the Gulf of Aden, he organised a 
camel caravan of thirty camels, four ponies, two donkeys, and 
twenty-seven men. 

To find themselves alone with nature, where they had to 
hunt and kill their meat, was a great joy to young officers 
" fed up " with society manners and home scouting. But to 
begin by shooting a male lion which, as the local sheikh 
said, had killed thirty-four natives, was so exhilarating that 
they split a pint of champagne at the evening meal. On 
28th January, Lowther shot two lionesses, and Vandeleur 
a rhinoceros, which he had followed for five hours. 

On his return to England, the president of the Royal 
Geographical Society wrote Vandeleur a letter of hearty 
congratulation on his map and survey. He rejoined for 
duty in April, but Africa had wooed him too well, and in 
August 1894, at the age of twenty-five, he volunteered for 
the Uganda Rifles ; but before he started, he studied care- 
fully the work of previous explorers and soldiers in the 
country. Colonel Colville was the commissioner of what is 
called the East African Protectorate, and he selected a few 
English officers to command the Sudanese troops under his 
orders ; of these Vandeleur was one. 

From Mombasa a steam-launch took them ten miles up 
the river, and then they landed for their 800 miles' march to 
the Victoria Nyanza. When they drew near this inland sea 
they saw splendid banana gardens and a numerous population 
clad in bark -cloth. 

At Entebbi they met and reported themselves to Colonel 
Colville in his beautiful house overlooking the lake. Here 
Major Cunningham, D.S.O., was their commanding officer, a 
friend of Vandeleur's ever after, and a comrade in Nigeria 
and South Africa. Their first duty was to travel to Unyoro 
and Lake Albert and take surveys of the country. They 

265 



LIEUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

reached Dufile above the cataract, once occupied by the 
Egyptians, but now left in the hands of the Dervishes. 
From this place to Lado, ISO miles, are foaming rapids ; 
from Lado to Khartoum, 900 miles, is an open Nile navigable 
for steamers. 

Not long after this, Kaba-Rega, king of Unyoro, began 
raiding the country for slaves and ivory, and an English 
expedition was sent against him ; in this Vandeleur com- 
manded the Maxim-gun detachment. While our Sudanese 
in five canoes were crossing the river, a thousand yards wide, 
and made difficult by masses of sudd, or floating vegetation, 
Vandeleur from a raised platform opened fire upon the 
opposite shore ; but the enemy upset two of our canoes and 
wounded Cunningham and Dunning, and they had to retreat. 

We who live quietly in England reading our newspapers 
and criticising the young men who are engaged in preserving 
the British Empire, cannot easily realise the actual hardships 
which are often suffered. For here was young Dunning shot 
through the chest, and no surgeon near to attend to him. 
He had to be borne by natives through swamps and jungle, 
while the little caravan was often harassed by attacks of 
jubilant savages. 

In March, Vandeleur wrote : " A black came up in haste 
to the front of the column to fetch me, and on going back a 
short way I found poor Dunning quite unconscious. His 
litter had been placed on the ground, and the bearers were 
standing round in a helpless manner. I made every effort to 
restore him, but in vain ; at last the sad conviction stole over 
me that he was dead. I had striven hard to believe that 
this was not the case, and must confess to giving way alto- 
gether in grief at the loss of a brave and gallant comrade, 
and realising the utter sadness of such a death in this far-off 
savage land. . . . Cunningham improved gradually, and was 
soon able to get about on crutches." 

266 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

Life in Africa — even camp-life — is redeemed from dull- 
ness by its evening entertainments. For instance, on four 
successive nights a lion entered the camp, carrying off on 
19th April one woman ; on 20th, another woman ; on 21st, 
a man, but the lion was seen in the act, and fired at. On 
22nd, a section went out and found the marauder by a river, 
wounded and fierce ; they killed him ! On 24th the lion's 
mate came and took a child, and was fired at. 

Before Vandeleur's service in Uganda was over, he had 
captured an Arab slave station, freed many slaves, and taken 
much cloth and ivory. One slave girl said she had been 
bought for three goats, another for some beads. His Sudanese 
soldiers were as delighted as he was, for their share of the 
loot would make them comfortable for many years ! 

He came home in 1896 with a military reputation, and 
a feeling that he had been working in a good cause, and for 
the happiness of the African tribes. 

The " Murchison Grant " was awarded him for his 
geographical work, and Queen Victoria gave him the decora- 
tion of D.S.O. with her own hands at Windsor. Very soon 
after, Vandeleur was offered by Sir George Goldie six months 1 
special service in the Niger Protectorate, which he accepted 
with delight, and set forth for West Africa within seven 
months of his return to England. 

Colonel Maxse, in his valuable book on Seymour Vande- 
leur, says : " Even as Cecil Rhodes added Rhodesia to our 
Empire, Goldie gave us Nigeria ; and of the two, Nigeria is 
the more valuable, and was the more difficult to acquire." 

George Taubman Goldie, born in the Isle of Man, was 
educated at Woolwich for the Royal Engineers. He visited 
the Niger in 1877, and with keen insight noticed the value 
of this great river, and devoted twenty years of his life to 
securing it for his country. 

A royal charter was granted in 1886, and the K.C.M.G. 
267 



LIEUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

was bestowed upon Sir George for his able administration of 
the province. 

In 1896 the Emir of Nupe had been trying to persuade 
the other chiefs of the Fulani to join forces and expel all 
white men from the country. 

The Fulani were Mahometans, and resented the teach- 
ing of missionaries on the subject of slavery. Sir George 
believed that any progress in Nigeria was impossible until 
the Fulani had been beaten in battle. But it was a very 
hazardous scheme, with only thirty British officers and 500 
Haussas, and a few big guns, to think of attacking a town 
of 70,000 inhabitants, and a large army of 20,000 fanatics. 

The Fulani are a very interesting race, and take us back 
in memory to our Bible records ; for in the year 2136 b.c. 
several hordes of Asiatic shepherds invaded Egypt, bringing 
with them their humpbacked cattle. After years of conflict 
these shepherds gained the mastery, and their dynasty of 
" shepherd kings " endured for five centuries. But in 1 636 
b.c. the old Theban kings came back to their own, and the 
nomads went south into the Sudan, some turning east to 
the mountains of Abyssinia to become the ancestors of the 
Galas, and others going westward towards the Niger. 

But in all their wanderings they strove to keep their race 
pure, never allowing their daughters to wed with strangers ; 
and they for long maintained their historic worship of the bull 
or calf, and handed down stories and traditions of Hebrew 
law and custom. 

In the sixteenth century they were converted to Maho- 
metanism, though in remote parts of Senegal they remain in 
their old faith. As a race they are copper-coloured, with 
straight hair and clean-cut features. They dress in clean, 
white linen, and have a haughty mien, for they keep proudly 
aloof from the inferior negroid tribes. 

It was this brave and strong people whom Vandeleur, 
268 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

with others, was summoned to fight ; and by January 1897 
the officers found themselves at the mouth of the Niger, which 
here is choked and intersected by many swamps and back- 
waters. A steam-launch conveyed them up the river to 
Lokoja, at the junction of the Niger and Benne, where all 
was stir and activity. Many stern-wheeled steamers were 
being laden with rations and ammunition ; for Sir George 
Goldie had made vast preparations, and left nothing to chance 
in this, his great struggle against the revolt of Nupe. 

Critics at home were prophesying a rout and failure, 
but Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, at the Colonial Office, was 
standing loyally to back up the policy of the man on the 
spot, who ought to know best. His forces were only Haussas, 
carefully drilled for many years and trained in conflict with 
slave-raiders. They were led by picked officers of the British 
army. 

The Emir of Nupe had sent 6000 men south to attack 
Lokoja ; the main army was on the other side of the Niger 
defending Bida, his capital. 

The British governor decided to get between the two 
armies and attack them separately, so he patrolled the Niger 
with gunboats to prevent any communication. 

The troops were commanded by Major Arnold, who had 
himself trained and organised the 500 Haussas. 

So small a number of men would of course have been 
quickly defeated had they not been better armed than the 
Fulani, and supported by Maxims, two Whitworth guns, 
and five light guns, served by three Royal Artillery officers 
and fifty-nine Haussa gunners. 

Every night strands of wire were stretched round the 
camp, and " surprise lights " were hung up at intervals. 

The officers were mounted on little mountain ponies, and 
had one servant each ; two Mahometan priests went with 
the Haussas, Three days of forced marches through a varied 

269 



LIEUT. COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

land of scrub, hill, and forest brought them to Kabba, where 
to their dismay they found the enemy had gone back north 
to Bida. However, the flag was raised and Kabba taken 
over, to the joy of the inhabitants. After this the Jakpana 
hills had to be crossed in haste, for there was no water near 
the route, and the lava rocks burnt the naked feet of the 
porters. 

Again they had to cross the Niger by the aid of canoes 
and a steel boat, but a swamp proved so difficult that the 
guns had to be left behind while half the force pressed on to 
Bida. 

The little force of 250 Haussas in khaki uniforms and 
red tarbooshes no sooner took ground on a ridge overlook- 
ing the city than they found themselves almost surrounded 
by an immense force of horse and foot. 

A couple of Maxims scared the Fulani, but the Haussas 
were formed into a square, and a retreat was made towards a 
ravine where they had left supplies and where there was water. 

All the way back they were constantly halting and beat- 
ing back rushes of infantry, but by 2.30 p.m. they reached 
their camp, hungry and tired. 

Fortunately by this time the seven-pounders had arrived, 
and their noisy discharges effected a great moral blow on 
the nerves of the enemy. 

Soon after 4 p.m. the nine-pounder was dragged into 
camp, and its very first shell, aimed at long range, burst 
among the allies of the Emir and killed their chief. This 
so paralysed them that the whole body of allies went home. 

Then came supper at dusk, after twelve hours' fighting ; 
and when it was quite dark the remaining half of the force 
reached camp, escorting the twelve-pounder amid much 
cheering and variations on the bugle. 

" What ! fire the big gun in the dark ! how absurd ! M 

said the critics. 

270 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

Nevertheless, out of bravado, by means of a compass- 
bearing, the big gun was elevated to its extreme range (5400 
yards) and fired at the city. The shell actually fell and 
burst near the palace, and great was the alarm of the foe. 
" One never can feel safe with these white men, 11 was the 
sombre reflection. 

Next day the five hundred advanced, shelled the city and 
set it on fire, for the grass roofs, sun-scorched, blazed merrily ; 
the Fulani fled, and the flag was hoisted over what was left. 
Thus Nupe was freed from the oppression of the Fulani, 
mainly owing to discipline and artillery ; a large district 
was relieved of slave-raids, and Haussaland was added to 
the British Empire. 

Before Vandeleur came home he was engaged in another 
expedition against Korin, to the west, and their march was 
cheered by excited natives, who had known what it meant 
to have their villages raided by slave-catchers. 

Vandeleur came home highly commended for his work 
with the Maxim, and was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord 
Methuen in the Home District. He was still writing his 
book, Campaigning on the Niger, when a telegram came, 
offering him service in the Egyptian army. 

It was Christmas Eve 1897, but he set out for Cairo at 
once. 

We must remember that Abu-Klea was fought in January 
1885, and the Desert Column reached the Nile only to find 
that Khartoum had fallen and Gordon had been slain on 
26th January. So they retreated to Dongola. 

The Mahdi died in June, and the Khalifa succeeded him. 
In August, Grenfell defeated a Dervish invasion of Egypt ; 
but a grave defeat of Italians by Abyssinians in March 1896 
made Egypt so unsafe that, by the advice of Lord Cromer 
and Sir Herbert Kitchener, the reconquest of the Sudan was 
determined on after some vacillation. 



LIEUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

Kitchener had provided himself with an Intelligence 
Department under Major Wingate, and he knew exactly 
where to go and what to do. 

He built a railway between Wadi Haifa and Dongola, 
and restored the old line begun by Ismail Pasha, and when 
all was ready made a surprise visit upon Ferkeh by night. 
The 10th Sudanese, drilled into heroes, were grinning with 
pleasure at the thought of fighting the detested Baggara. 
MacDonald's brigade and Maxwell's and Lewis's were hurry- 
ing up in silence, and at 5.30 a.m. the surprise was completed, 
the village and defences were taken, and the once victorious 
Dervishes were in full flight. 

This victory was hailed with delight at home, after so 
many years of failure ; but Abdullah at Omdurman said 
from his pulpit, " It is nothing ! " 

How Kitchener gained Berber and won the battle of 
Atbara we must defer to another chapter. 

After Atbara the men were packed in barges and sent 
south to Omdurman. Vandeleur, with the 9th and 10th 
Sudanese, was in MacDonald's brigade, and wrote in his 
diary a clear account of that general's splendid performance 
at Omdurman in bearing the brunt of two attacks almost 
simultaneous, and made from different quarters. Vandeleur 
says : " As the ceasefire sounded, I rode out in front of my 
men to stop the shooting, when a Baggara spearman lying 
down unhurt about sixty paces off made for me. He ran at 
a great pace, and my horse, being nervous, interfered with 
my aim. His first spear whizzed past my head ; I hit him 
with two revolver bullets, but still he closed with me. I then 
warded off his spear-thrust with my right hand and revolver, 
and he fell dead- — finished off by one of the men's bullets." 

After this victory Vandeleur had another year's service 
on the Nile, chasing the Mahdi's generals ; for this he was 
made brevet-major, though he was not yet thirty ! In 

272 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

November 1899, Colonel Sir R. Wingate defeated the Khalifa 
and his chiefs, who died fighting bravely at the battle of 
El-Gedid. A few days after Vandeleur was recalled to 
London to take part in the Boer War. On his way he 
heard at Marseilles of Gatacre's disaster at Stormberg, at 
Paris of Methuen's defeat at Magersfontein, and at London 
of Buller's defeat at Colenso, and the appointment of Lord 
Roberts as commander-in-chief in South Africa. Six days 
spent in London showed him all classes full of vexation and 
disquiet, and Vandeleur was glad to embark at Southampton 
for the scenes of action. 

As the steamship ploughed her way to the south, Seymour 
Vandeleur had time to read up the details of the Boer War 
and ponder over its difficulties, and wonder what might be 
in store for him. The Boers were as well armed as the 
British troops — nay, even better. For he read with burning 
cheek how the great Creusot gun on Pepworth Hill threw a 
96-pound shell four miles, and we had none to reply to it ; 
he read how, when our forces had to retire to Ladysmith, 
this monster gun kept hurling its heavy projectiles into the 
disheartened troops. 

But when they were still some miles from camp a strange 
crash far away came to their ears ; a strange wail overhead 
of passing shells made them turn to see what it might mean ; 
and lo ! there on Pepworth Hill were bursting shells that no 
English field-gun could have sent. The lads of the navy 
had come to the rescue ! Captain Percy Scott, R.N., had 
devised carriages for two of his guns. They had been placed 
on trucks, and the puffing engine had drawn them up from 
the sea over rivers and through mountains. Captain Hed- 
worth Lambton and his bearded bluejackets had hauled them 
into position, thrust up their long necks, and taught the 
Pepworth gun to hold its iron tongue. 

How strangely different was all this to Vandeleur's 
273 s 



L1EUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

experiences in Somaliland, Uganda, Nigeria ! where a few 
white men could hold their own against a thousand brave 
but ill-armed natives ! 

On January 10, 1900, Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener 
landed at Cape Town and began the formation of transport 
for the long march on Bloemfontein. 

Vandeleur, in the middle of January, was posted to the 
command of the transport at De Aar — a dusty, wind-swept 
junction, where troop-trains were ever coming in and deposit- 
ing their loads. In time he was attached to Kelly-Kenny's 
6th Division as senior transport officer. 

The impressive scene of 30,000 fighting-men march- 
ing in extended order over the veldt through thin 
clouds of dust is noted in his diary. The loaded mule- 
waggons straining and cracking in the rear raised a thicker 
veil. 

Their first bivouac by Ramdam's Lake was pleasant 
enough, but when it came to pushing the waggons in single 
file across a drift or ford over the Riet, it was exhausting 
for all ; at Waterval Drift, Vandeleur was hard at work all 
night getting his loads across the Riet. 

At midnight on 14th February his division started for 
Madder River to enable French to make his dash for 
Kimberley. 

On the 15th Kimberley was relieved, and Cronje started 
from his earth like a hunted fox and made straight for 
Bloemfontein. 

But on the 16th and 17th the Boers were pursued in 
hot haste as far as Paardeberg Drift. On the 18th Cronje 
was headed off by a cavalry brigade from Kimberley, while 
a desperate infantry attack pinned him closely to his laager 
in the river bed. 

All through this week of toil neither troops nor trans- 
port had sufficient food or rest ; but now there were nine 

274 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

days of comparative ease while Lord Roberts stood by to 
await Cronje's surrender. 

On 27th February, the day of the old defeat on Majuba, 
Vandeleur notes in his diary : " A great deal of firing was 
heard at 3 a.m. ; this proved to be the Canadians attacking 
the trenches. 

"They got within sixty yards, and the Engineers dug 
a trench which enfiladed the Boer lines. I rode out at 
dawn to our first line and met a flag of truce brought out 
by two Boers. Lord Roberts directed Cronje himself to 
appear. The two Boers, on rather nice ponies, rode back 
to the laager, and in some excitement we awaited Cronje's 
arrival at a point about a thousand yards from his lines. 

"In half-an-hour Piet Cronje and another appeared. 
He was rather fat, red-faced above his beard ; a hard-looking 
man in blue serge trousers, brown boots, yellow overcoat, and 
big felt hat with orange ribbon, riding a grey pony. 

" He only spoke Dutch, and, after a hurried ' Good 
morning,' rode off with a staff officer to Lord Roberts, with 
whom he breakfasted. . . . 

" Afterwards I rode down with General Kelly-Kenny to 
the drift where the Boers were collected, carrying their 
blankets and a few necessaries. 

"The Buffs, acting as guard, formed up in line some 
distance from them. The prisoners were counted — result : 
Free Staters, 1131 ; Transvaalers, 2620 ; not counted, 250 ; 
wounded, 140 — total, 4141. It was a great sight, and they 
were a fine-looking lot of men. 11 

This was on Majuba day, and spirits rose high — still 
higher when news was flashed next day that Ladysmith was 
relieved. 

But De Wet had made a great coup by destroying or 
capturing half our supply-pack at Waterval Drift — 170 
loaded ox-waggons full of rations and forage, much needed 

275 



LIEUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

for our troops and horses that were with Lord Roberts, 
were all lost to us, and the advance on Bloemfontein was 
thus delayed several days ; in consequence the Boers had 
time to take up strong positions, and Vandeleur and his 
waggons were frequently under heavy fire. At Bloemfontein 
he heard he had been mentioned in despatches and con- 
gratulated on his management of the transport throughout 
the previous operations. Lord Kitchener declared that 
transport was a most important service, and he refused to 
sanction a proposal made by Lord Errol that Vandeleur 
should act as brigade-major in the Yeomanry. 

On the same day Vandeleur received a telegram from 
the War Office : " Will you accept transfer as senior captain 
in new Irish Guards regiment ? " As an Irishman he was 
proud of the honour, and telegraphed acceptance. But 
Lord Kitchener made him now senior transport officer on 
General Hutton's staff, and the weary work of chasing Boer 
commandoes went on till Vandeleur was transferred to Ian 
Hamilton's staff and was at the capture of Lydenburg. In 
November 1900 Lord Roberts resigned his command to 
Kitchener, who sent for Vandeleur and offered him the com- 
mand of the 2nd Mounted Infantry battalion. This gave him 
great joy — he was almost daily in action in the Magaliesberg 
hills, galloping to seize the crest-line, fording boggy streams, 
safeguarding convoys, and defending railways and trains. 

But at the end of January 1901, as he was riding to 
reinforce his pickets he felt a tremendous blow on the left 
thigh. His sergeant-major helped him off his horse and 
bandaged him with a pugaree. He had to lie behind some 
boulders under fire for three hours, and was then carried 
to a house some way off. The bullet had penetrated the 
hip, travelled down the left leg, and came out in front of 
the left thigh ; no bone was broken, but the wound was 
deep enough. 

276 



A SOLDIER OF THE GUARDS 

Vandeleur was taken in a jolting ambulance to Krugers- 
dorp Station, and put, after a sixty-mile ride, into the 
Wanderers' Club, Johannesburg, which was used as an 
hospital. In a month he was able to get to Cape Town, 
where his father met him and took him home to Ireland. 

He saw in the Honours Gazette that he was promoted, 
at the age of thirty-one, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
Then his soul yearned for more service, and he went back to 
Pretoria in August. 

North of Pretoria Colonel Harold Grenfell had been lead- 
ing Kitchener's Fighting Scouts and some Mounted Infantry 
battalions against Beyers in the bush-veldt near Nylstroom. 
Grenfell needed a rest, and Lord Kitchener selected Vandeleur 
to succeed to his command. 

His friends were glad, for they knew his grit, a quality 
underlying his quiet manner and cheerful countenance ; they 
believed he would prove to be a brilliant commander and 
successful leader. 

Alas 1 this good-looking hero of the blue eyes and wavy 
auburn hair was destined to meet a cruel end to all his 
ambitions. For after dining with Colonel Romilly of the 
Scots Guards — two English officers of French blood — Vande- 
leur went at 11 p.m. to the station and slept in the train 
which was to start at dawn for Nylstroom. The train 
included three open trucks and one corridor coach ; the 
passengers were two ladies with their children, Major 
Beatson, some non-commissioned officers and men. 

After leaving Waterval North, as the engine was puffing 
slowly up a steep gradient and through a cutting, the driver 
noticed two black scouts holding up their hands ; but before 
he could stop the train he saw the scouts fall, and heard 
shots fired ; immediately there was an explosion of dynamite 
under the engine, which overturned, together with the 
armoured carriage next to it. Then a fierce musketry fire 

277 



LIEUT.-COL. SEYMOUR VANDELEUR 

broke out, raking every window in the train and wounding 
both the ladies. Vandeleur sprang from his seat and rushed 
out into the corridor, shouting, " Ladies and men, lie down 
flat ! " 

On going to the door of his carriage he was confronted 
by a Boer named Uys, who put up his rifle and shot him 
dead at two yards' range. Nine killed, twenty-one wounded, 
besides the ladies — this was the bag made by that notorious 
Irish train-wrecker, Jack Hindon, who, with a gang of sixty 
Boers, used to lie in wait for the defenceless, and plunder 
civilians as well as soldiers. 

And this was the end of Seymour Vandeleur ! He was 
taken away just when Kitchener had given him a post he 
loved. 

His body was buried in the cemetery of the English 
church at Pretoria, with full military honours. It chanced 
that his old battalion of the Scots Guards was near, and 
Lord Kitchener summoned some of them by telegraph to 
attend the funeral. The commander-in-chief and the head- 
quarter's staff stood by, to pay their last tribute to a young 
man whom they loved and mourned. 

General Maxse adds these touching words to his memoir : 
" After all, it is a man's life, not his death, that matters, 
and the memory of Seymour Vandeleur as he was — a bright, 
ambitious, happy companion — still lingers with those who 
follow his calling and sympathise with his spirit. To them 
he will ever remain an example of straight, young manhood, 
and of a life spent in the pursuit of that which is best and 
highest in the profession he loved. ... By those who 
worked with him for years Vandeleur's death is recognised 
as a distinct loss to his country." 1 

1 From General Maxse's Seymour Vandeleur (Messrs. Heinemann), by 
kind permission of the Author. 

278 



CHAPTER XVI 

LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

KHARTOUM fell with Gordon's death on January 26, 
1885, and in the looting of the city the Mahdi's 
Dervishes seized great quantities of modern rifles 
and ammunitions of war. In June of the same year the 
Mahdi died, and was succeeded by the Khalifa. The follow- 
ing month our troops were withdrawn from Dongola, just 
south of the third cataract of the Nile, and the frontier was 
handed over to the Egyptian army, henceforth to be trained 
by English officers in the pay of the Egyptian Government, 
and Sir Evelyn Baring. 

The old Egyptian army had been so neglected by their 
native officers that they were notorious for their cowardice. 
For instance, at the battle of El-Teb in 1884, 3000 men 
under Valentine Baker were marching towards Tokar when a 
small body of Dervishes, about a thousand strong, threatened 
their square. The Egyptian troops threw down their arms 
and ran ; more than two thousand were killed like so many 
silly sheep. 

But under English officers these same Fellahin became 
splendid fighting-men, steady under fire, brave and dashing 
in attack. In fourteen years this miraculous change was 
brought about, because they loved their officers, knew they 
would lead the way, and felt a pride in being soldiers under 
such commanders as Grenfell and Kitchener. 

Herbert Kitchener had studied the ways of Egypt and 
the Nile for some years before he was appointed to lead an 

279 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

army against the Khalifa. Tall and straight, deliberate and 
passionless, with the brain of an engineer and the strong will 
of a despot, Kitchener was able to reduce the management of 
a campaign to a science, and to win victories at a cheaper 
rate than other generals brought off their defeats. 

Beginning service in the Royal Engineers, he became a 
military vice-consul in Asia Minor ; then director of the 
Palestine Exploration Fund. Afterwards he joined the new 
Egyptian army as second in command of a regiment of 
cavalry. In Wolseley's campaign he was Intelligence Officer, 
and went with Sir Herbert Stewart's desert column, on which 
occasion the importance of a well-organised transport was 
painfully impressed upon him. In 1887 and 1888 he com- 
manded at Suakim and attacked Osman Digna at Handub ; 
here he was wounded in the face. At the battle of Torki he 
commanded a brigade, and in 1890 succeeded Sir Francis 
Grenfell as Sirdar, or commander-in-chief. 

Kitchener was a glutton for work, and employed his 
officers with little mercy for their weaknesses ; he would 
have no married officers, no giving of sick-leave, no playing 
at being a soldier. 

If he was not loved, yet he was trusted to the hilt, for 
Kitchener always foresaw the obstacles and dangers. He 
played to win always. Now in March 1896 the Italians were 
defeated at Adowa by the Abyssinians ; they needed help, 
and the Dervishes under the Khalifa were concentrating 
at Omdurman ; so it was proposed by the English Cabinet 
that the frontier force should move a little to the south. 

Lord Cromer and the Sirdar were quite ready to do this 
— and a little more. There were four brigades of infantry : 
three Egyptian, one British. The former were commanded 
by Major-General Archibald Hunter, who for fourteen years 
had been fighting hard on the southern border, and was 
governor at Dongola and at Berber. Short and thick -set, 

280 



THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

with keen hazel eyes, he loved his blacks, and was adored by 
them as any hero or paladin of old ; a splendid leader of 
troops, but given to feats of reckless daring. Steevens wrote 
of him : " General Archie is the wonder and the darling of 
all the Egyptian army. And when the time comes that we 
want a new national hero, it may be he will be the wonder 
and the destiny of all the Empire also." 

With the cavalry under Colonel Broadwood, the five 
batteries of artillery, and the camel corps, the whole force 
was about 12,000 men and forty-six guns. There were also 
three gunboats patrolling off Fort Atbara. 

The Seaforth Highlanders were on their way with 1000 
more men. 

The Khalifa's general, Mahmud, had joined Osman Digna 
at Shendy, but no one knew if the Dervishes meant to fight ; 
not even Colonel Wingate, the chief of the Intelligence 
Department. 

We cannot follow all the details of war that preceded 
the battle on the Atbara ; but Kitchener had built a railway, 
and by the middle of March concentrated his force at Kunur, 
on the right bank of the Nile, five miles from the mouth of 
the Atbara. Mahmud was also moving north from Shendy, 
and finally made a zereba at Nakheila, some miles up the 
Atbara. After Kitchener had made several reconnaissances 
against the enemy's position, on April 7, 1898, the troops 
fell in at dusk for a twelve-mile march by night, led by a 
staff officer who knew the country well. At 9 p.m. a halt 
was called, water was served out, and the men lay down 
to rest on the sand of the desert. At one o'clock they 
all rose stealthily and moved on in silence. At four o'clock 
there was another halt — they were only four miles off now. 
They sat down, but it was too cold to sleep. Daylight saw 
them changing from square into attack formation as they 
advanced straight to the thorn thickets. 

281 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

At 900 yards from the zereba the men were ordered to 
sit down and watch the artillery open the ball with twenty- 
four guns ! 

Then at 6.15 a.m. the shelling began ; the shrapnel bullets 
searched the whole interior, where 15,000 men were hiding. 
The grass took fire and the palm-trees, and a thick smoke 
rose lazily into the air. At 7.40 a.m. the guns ceased fire, 
and the " general advance " was sounded ; then the " charge," 
and the Sudanese troops followed their British officers, 
bands playing, colours flying, into the zereba. By their 
side the Camerons and Seaforths came, knelt on the crest, 
volley -firing by sections ; then, with the pipes screaming, 
they ran and tugged at the dry camel-thorn, made a gap 
and dashed in and over the stockade and trenches, mingling 
with half-naked blacks, who shot and ran and shot again. 
On the right the Lincolns leapt in and the Warwicks, 
stumbling over pits and stockades, till at length suddenly 
they came to the river. Over the half-dry bed the Dervishes 
were scrambling, but few got far before they were shot down. 

" Well done, Egyptians ! " cheered our men when all was 
over, for the brave fellows were grinning and shaking hands 
as they cried, " Very good fight to-day ! " No longer cowards 
they, but veritable heroes ! 

Poor Mahmud, when he saw all his men fleeing, sat down 
on his carpet, said his prayers, and stoically awaited death. 

Some soldiers of the 10th Sudanese found him there, 
and brought him bareheaded before the Sirdar — a pure-bred 
Arab, tall, brown, about thirty-five he seemed. 

He answered the Sirdar defiantly. 

" Why did you come to make war here ? " asked Kitchener. 

"I came because I was told — the same as you." 

Our men could not but admire his unbending spirit in 
this the day of his adversity. 

Besides the dead men lying in the camp, there were 
282 



THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

hundreds of dead goats and sheep, donkeys, camels, and 
women — for the shrapnel made no distinction. 

The return to Berber was like a Roman triumph. The 
guns thundered a salute as the Sirdar rode through the wide 
street with Hunter Pasha at his side. The women screamed 
"Lu-lu" in their joy at being relieved of fear; and when 
they saw Mahmud all alone, his hands tied behind his back, 
many a one pressed forward and shook her fist in his face, 
and called him " Dog 1 " Perhaps this parade of the beaten 
general was ordered to produce an effect upon the populace ; 
otherwise it does not commend itself as being too generous 
or magnanimous. 

There was much to be done before our army could 
march on to Omdurman ; and Lord Kitchener always liked 
to get ready for all emergencies, leaving little or no scope 
for luck. The Romans thought much of a general who was 
feliXy or lucky, or successful ; but in these scientific days a 
general is felix because he has won success by hard work 
in preparing his troops and securing their food and trans- 
port, in mapping out his plan of campaign and in thwarting 
that of the enemy. Besides, it was important to wait for 
the rising Nile in July and August. So it was the end of 
August before our troops saw Omdurman from the ridge 
of a stony hill. A broad plain lay before them, sandy, 
patched with yellow grass ; beyond rose the low mud-houses 
of Omdurman, stretching far and wide ; and hard by the 
Nile they saw a yellow dome, high above the houses — the 
Mahdi's tomb. But in front of the city walls was a white 
band, which might have been tents ; only it moved, and 
then they knew it was men — men waiting the Khalifa's 
orders to go down and crush the white unbelievers. Our 
leaders — Lyttleton and Wauchope, Maxwell and MacDonald, 
Lewis and Collinson — were marshalling their men in line. 
The Maxims and field-guns were placed in the intervals of 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

the infantry line ; the cavalry had gone out to reconnoitre 
at dawn. As the troops waited for their orders with a clear 
fire-zone in front, hardly one believed the Dervishes would 
venture to attack ; but a trooper came spurring hotly over 
Gebel Surgham, the Lancers were seen returning on the left, 
and the Mounted Egyptians galloped to the right. What 
did it all mean ? Very soon the tap of drums and the 
hoarse voice of a great multitude came faintly to their ears, 
and set every man's heart throbbing with the excitement of 
coming battle. 

It was half-past six a.m. when the first British gun was 
fired ; for a line of flags and a waving mass of white, linen - 
clad warriors were coming on fast and straight. But at 
2000 yards the Guards, Warwicks, and the others later, stood 
and fired volleys ; the blacks from their shelter- trench were 
loading and firing as fast as they could, but still the Baggara 
and black troops of the Khalifa staggered on, falling like 
ripe corn before an invisible sickle, but firing high before 
they fell. The ground was quickly strewn with 8000 
wounded and dead, as though by bits of paper ; and some 
of the wounded were ours, chiefly the Highlanders, Camerons, 
and Seaforths. 

The enemy in front had disappeared by eight o'clock, but 
in the distance were flags and a long, long line of white. 

The 21st Lancers had ridden for the capital ; as the 
infantry moved forward they saw that the fallen were all of 
Arab type. But they were suddenly to be convinced that the 
battle was not yet over ; for twenty thousand men came from 
behind Surgham Hill, forcing Broadwood and his mounted 
men to retire. As the hills were covered with boulders the 
camels began to flounder and get behind the horsemen ; while 
the Dervishes in hot pursuit of them raced within 300 yards, 
and all seemed over for them. 

But just then one of the gunboats swung down-stream 
284 



THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

and checked the Dervishes by well-placed shrapnel and 
Maxim bullets. Broad wood cantered away north, leading 
Sheik-el-Din and the Dervishes after him away from the 
battlefield, as happened to Prince Rupert of old ; then 
after playing with them, he slipped back close to the river 
under cover of a gunboat and rejoined our army at 10 a.m. 

The Khalifa's plan had been to envelop our army by 
force of numbers on three sides ; he had not reckoned on 
the tremendous rapidity of gun-fire and rifle-fire, and thus 
he failed. 

The Sirdar now resolved to risk much by interposing 
his army between the enemy and his base ; he therefore 
headed for Omdurman, with two unbeaten bodies of Dervishes 
still threatening his flank ; but, judging from past experience, 
he thought he could beat off their attacks. 

The Khalifa and his reserve lay on his left, another body 
was concealed by the Kerreri hills on his right. 

It was now about 8.40 a.m., when the 21st Lancers rode 
into an ambush in a khor, or ravine ; they had to cut their 
way through a large body of Arabs, and lost many men. 

It is spoken of as a splendid blunder ; it did no good, 
and prevented them afterwards from catching the Khalifa. 

MacDonald's brigade meanwhile was violently attacked 
by the Khalifa's reserve under the black flag. The Emirs 
rode down upon him like jockeys at the Derby, followed by 
riflemen and spearmen on foot. The 9th, the 11th, and the 
16th Sudanese faced about and coolly swept them away, 
though some Arabs rode close up before they fell. 

Twenty thousand warriors charging three thousand, and 
not one of the twenty thousand tried to avoid the certain 
death that awaited him ! But suddenly a new danger 
threatened MacDonald ; the green flags of Ali Wad Helu 
were descending upon the rear of the 9th Sudanese ! 
Unless the brigade could be forthwith brought into a new 

285 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

alignment facing the green flags they would be swept away 
by this new charge, and after him would go Lewis and 
Collinson. But MacDonald saw the enemy coming, knew 
exactly what to do, and did it. This Scot had risen from 
private soldier to his great command, and had been drilling 
his men during several years. All this trouble which he 
had taken so long saved the battle of Omdurman. Swiftly 
he gave his orders, and at once the rifle-fire ceased against 
the black flags, and the companies began threading their 
way at the double, in and out by the shortest route, into a 
new line facing the green flags. Those who saw the move- 
ment held their breath with wonder and admiration. It was 
lucky the earlier attack had nearly exhausted itself before 
the second came on ; but the Baggara killed two hundred of 
MacDonald's men before they were stopped by the deadly 
hail. It was then that Captain Vandeleur was nearly killed 
by a wounded spearman. 

Kitchener, leaving nothing to chance, moved three 
brigades towards the desert, and drove away all bodies of 
Dervishes who wanted more fighting. Very weary were the 
troops when this was all done, and they were halted by the 
side of a stream for biscuits and water and a short rest on 
the ground. 

When the Khalifa saw that all his attacks had failed — 
chiefly because the British were better armed and better 
led — that his brother, Yakoob, had been killed, and his son 
Sheik-el-Din was mortally wounded, he rode in hot haste to 
the city and assembled the faithful by the booming of the 
great elephant tusk. But however earnestly the Prophet 
preached resistance, the spirit had gone out of his men. 

So with a few followers he rode away into the desert, 
barely escaping Maxwell's brigade, which was the first to 
enter Omdurman. 

So ended Friday, September 2, 1898, the day which had 
286 



THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

given deliverance to the Sudan from the grievous yoke of 
the oppressor. 

On the Sunday following a religious service was held at 
Khartoum in memory of Gordon. The service was taken 
by four chaplains — Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and 
Methodist — near the ruins of his palace, where now a 
magnificent cathedral and college stand. The pipers played 
a dirge, and the Sudanese "Abide with Me," Gordon's 
favourite hymn. 

The Sirdar, who for fourteen years had been working 
hard to compass this feat of deliverance and this honour paid 
to the saintly Gordon, was so overcome by emotion that he 
could not speak when General Hunter and the other generals 
in their order stepped out and clasped his hand. They had 
all done their best — but Kitchener had thought it out. 

Gordon's garden was going wild, luxuriantly green, full 
of large leaves and stunted fruit ; but the master, the 
Christian soldier, had now received a Christian burial under 
the Union Jack and the Egyptian flag. 

On the Tuesday following the British troops began to re- 
turn to Cairo and England. They took with them the story 
of how Kitchener had devised a means of subduing the Der- 
vishes and giving freedom and prosperity to the Sudanese. 
But what pleased the people as much as anything was the 
business-like method of waging war, the small cost in men 
and money by which we had regained our self-respect. 

On Thursday Lord Kitchener steamed up the White 
Nile with many gunboats to discuss with the French ex- 
plorer, Major Marchand, the meaning of his settlement at 
Fashoda. 

The hostile excitement in Europe had no parallel in 
Africa, where Marchand was hospitably received by the 
English officers, for his charming personality won him friends 
at the outset. 

287 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

For the next fifteen months our hero was engaged in 
organising expeditions to catch the Khalifa and repress his 
Arab followers. It was difficult to reach him, as the country 
over which he moved was so waterless and barren. Even 
when he was located at Gebel Gedir, a hundred miles from 
the Nile and behind Fashoda, our troops had to march fifty 
miles carrying their drinking water ; and then spies warned 
the Khalifa, and he escaped to southern Kordofan. So 
Kitchener ordered the troops to return to Omdurman and 
wait for a better chance. There, in November 1899, they 
found gloomy telegrams from Natal, where the Boer War 
was beginning badly. 

But news soon came that the Khalifa had picked up 
heart, and was again preaching a holy war and advancing 
northwards. 

The Sirdar hurried from Cairo, and appointed Sir R. 
Wingate to command the field-force in Kordofan. 

How they marched sixty miles in sixty-one consecutive 
hours, fought two battles, destroyed the whole Dervish force 
at El-Gedid, and returned in December with 3000 prisoners 
— is it not written in history ? 

The Khalifa and his Emirs died splendidly, as the 
bravest of the brave. 

But disaster at Colenso on December 16, 1899, had set 
all Europe triumphing over us, but had nerved all English- 
men to try again and yet again. On December 18th, two days 
after Colenso, the Cabinet resolved that the direction of the 
whole campaign should be placed in the hands of Lord 
Roberts, the veteran Field- Marshal, with Lord Kitchener as 
his chief of staff. 

Lord Roberts had won his spurs as England's hero on 
the plains of India. He might well have pleaded his sixty- 
seven years as a reason for staying at home ; but the gallant 
gentleman had kept his alert and wiry figure in good health 




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THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

and fit to perform the service which his country asked of 
him. As Chaucer said, he is " a very perfect, gentle knight," 
chivalrous and kindly, unselfish, and devoted to the best 
interests of the soldiers, who loved him loyally. 

So Lords Roberts and Kitchener landed at Cape Town 
on January 10, 1900. One of their first duties was to con- 
vert 4000 regular infantry soldiers into eight battalions of 
mounted infantry. The next was to prepare a service of 
mobile transport. This Lord Roberts directed Lord Kit- 
chener to organise the very day after their arrival. 

In one week after the arrival of our heroes, February 11th 
to 18th, the whole aspect of the war was changed, much to 
our advantage. Kimberley was relieved ; Cronje's flight was 
stayed at Paardeburg ; Bloemfontein was captured. And as 
the result of all this, Ladysmith was relieved, and the Boers 
were retreating north. 

This is not a history of the Boer War, and we can only 
remind the reader of the success which attended Roberts and 
Kitchener in clearing the way to Pretoria, the capital of the 
Transvaal. 

The war was then thought to be over, but guerilla war- 
fare kept Lord Kitchener busy until the spring of 1902. 

Early in December 1900 Lord Roberts left Africa to 
take over his duties in England as commander-in-chief. 
Some critics think that if Lord Roberts had been less kind- 
hearted, the war would have been over sooner. Lord 
Kitchener, we may be sure, would never have given back 
to the Boers their rifles and their horses before they were 
thoroughly subdued. So true is it that in war severity is 
sometimes kinder than gentle measures. In Lord Roberts' 
address to his troops he writes : " The service which the 
South African Force has performed is, I venture to think, 
unique in the annals of war, inasmuch as it has been 
absolutely almost incessant for a whole year. There has 

289 t 



LORDS KITCHENER AND ROBERTS 

been no rest, no days off to recruit, no going into winter 
quarters ; for months together, in fierce heat, in biting cold, 
in pouring rain, you, my comrades, have marched and 
fought without halt, and bivouacked without shelter from 
the elements. You frequently have had to continue march- 
ing with your clothes in rags, and your boots without soles. 
. . . When not engaged in actual battle you have been 
shot at from behind kopjes by invisible enemies to whom 
every inch of the country was familiar, and who, from the 
peculiar nature of the country, were able to inflict severe 
punishment while perfectly safe themselves. You have 
forced your way through dense jungles, over precipitous 
mountains, through and over which with infinite manual 
labour you have had to drag heavy guns and ox-waggons. 
. . . You have endured the sufferings inevitable in war to 
sick and wounded men far from the base, without a murmur 
and even with cheerfulness." Such a general deserved and 
won the affections of his soldiers. 

What Lord Roberts has done for the Empire could not 
be told in many volumes ; we have only slightly touched on 
his command in South Africa. Of his later work we can 
say but a word — his earnest attempt to convince his country- 
men that we all owe a service to the State, the duty of 
making ourselves fit to defend hearth and home. The great 
Duke of Wellington tried in vain to show his contem- 
poraries their duty, and the peril of neglecting it until it 
is too late. 

As for Lord Kitchener, that cool-headed, scientific soldier, 
by degrees and with difficulty, shepherded the De Wets and 
De la Reys within his web of barbed wire, and slowly wore 
down the resistance of the last twenty thousand Boers. 

On May 31, 1902, their delegates signed the terms of 
peace ; and recently we have given our brave enemies generous 
conditions enough. 

890 



THE PILLARS OF EMPIRE 

Lord Kitchener took the command of the king's forces 
in India ; then, when his term was over, after visiting Japan, 
Australia, New Zealand, and other colonies, giving them the 
benefit of his supreme talent for organisation, he returned 
to England, and is now at home, ready to serve his country 
and his king. 1 

1 In part from Steevens' With Kitchener to Khartum, by kind permission 
of Messrs. Blackwood & Sons and Messrs. Nelson & Sons. 



291 



PART III 

STATESMEN— MEN OF THOUGHT 



CHAPTER XVII 
SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B., F.R.S. 

HENRY EDWARD BARTLE FRERE, born in 
1815, lived with his father and mother at Bath, 
and went to school at Bath College. The family 
removed to the Rectory Bitton, close to the church, where 
old-world gardens, stone walls, orchards, fields, and rivulets 
lent a charm to a scene bounded on the north and east by 
the high hills of Lansdown and on the south by the Avon. 
In 1834 the clever boy entered the Indian Civil Service, 
where he soon made his mark, being appointed Resident at 
Sattara in 1847. In 1850 we find him Chief Commissioner 
of Scinde, and in 1862 he was appointed Governor of 
Bombay. During his tenancy of this position the Bank 
of Bombay failed after the suspension of Overend and 
Gurney. The shareholders were mostly civil servants, and 
they naturally tried to fix the blame on the Government. 
Frere was deeply distressed by the ruin of so many friends ; 
and when Major Innes wrote in a memorandum of the 
"supineness and inaction" of the Bombay Government, 
Frere pencilled in the margin of the blue-book these 
pathetic words : " I only know that when the bank was 
first in trouble the governor had scarce a white hair in 
his head, and that when he left Bombay he had few brown 
ones." 

There are some men who seem to be perpetually con- 
fronted with exceptional difficulties. With the best inten- 
tions, and with wise forethought, as it appeared at the time, 

295 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

Sir Bartle had promoted the growth of cotton, but the 
collapse of the Confederate States of America had dis- 
organised the market and caused many failures. He had 
spent public money in reclaiming swamps from the sea 
and building healthier houses ; but companies were formed, 
and mad speculations in land resulted in great losses. For 
much of this the governor was undeservedly held responsible. 

A London paper, describing Frere's character, says : 
" He has revealed a mind of singularly wide sympathies 
and of high culture " ; and his biographer, John Martineau, 
wrote : " It was ingrained in his nature to shrink from 
giving unnecessary pain by word or tone even to the least 
deserving. " 

In 1867 Frere returned to England, and was offered a 
seat on the Indian Council in London. In his farewell 
speech at Bombay, as Chancellor of the University, he 
said : " There has ever been a continued protest, on the 
part of those who mould the thought and direct the action 
of the British nation, against the doctrine that India is to 
be administered in any other spirit than as a trust from 
God for the good government of many millions of His 
creatures. . . . However firmly England may resolve that 
no force shall wrest from her the Empire of India, the root 
of that resolve has always been a deep conviction that to 
surrender that Empire would be to betray a high trust." 

Just these few lines serve to show us what manner of 
man Sir Bartle had grown to ; he left India regretted by the 
wise and good and by many of the most influential of the 
natives of Bombay. 

In September 1872, Lord Granville asked Frere to 
undertake a mission to Zanzibar in order to make a new 
treaty with the Sultan and so put down the horrible slave- 
trade then recently described by Livingstone. On his way 
he had interviews with Thiers and De Remusat, with King 

296 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

Victor Emmanuel at Rome, and with his ministers, and the 
Pope gave him his blessing. At Cairo the Khedive promised 
him his support. 

The Sultan of Zanzibar flatly refused to put down slavery 
— it was far too profitable to throw away — so Frere sailed 
southwards with a British ship-of-war in company, which 
made some impression on the ports they visited. One day 
some very valuable despatches on board Frere's yacht, the 
Enchantress, were being eaten by a passenger. The crew 
pursued, and the offender skipped from rope to rope. At 
last he threw down in disgust the ill-digested but well-bitten 
papers. It was useless scolding him, so the pet monkey was 
left to his meditations ! 

On returning to Zanzibar, Frere found the Sultan still 
obdurate. He then instructed the senior naval officer on 
the coast that he was to stop all ships carrying slaves. This 
was amply sufficient ; the Sultan of Zanzibar sighed and 
signed the treaty. For this service in Africa Frere was 
made a Privy Councillor, and had a long interview with 
Queen Victoria on the subject of the slave-trade. 

" The queen knew more about it than all her ministers, 11 
was his comment. 

In 1874 Livingstone's body was brought to England. 
Frere, addressing the African section of the Society of Arts, 
said : " Livingstone was intellectually and morally as perfect 
a man as it has ever been my fortune to meet ... in all 
he did he worked in the same spirit as the great apostles of 
old. . . . Martyr he was, and hero, and we may no more 
lament him than other heroes who have died in their 
country's service, or holy men who have entered into their 
rest. 11 

In 1875, when the Prince of Wales visited India, it was 
Frere who was selected to direct and manage the tour. 
When this was over, Frere was made a baronet and G.C.B. 

297 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

At this period Sir Bartle's popularity was at its height, 
and on all Eastern questions his counsel was the first to be 
sought. 

In October 1876, Lord Carnarvon, Colonial Secretary, 
invited Sir Bartle to go to the Cape, nominally as Governor, 
but really as High Commissioner, to carry out a scheme of 
confederation. 

Africa had not been his sphere of work — India would 
have suited him better — but he felt it to be a call to duty, 
and sailed in March with his family. Writing to friends 
at home on the queen's birthday, he says : " They are a 
very picturesque crowd at Cape Town ; nearly as idle as the 
Italians, but far more good-humoured. You seldom see a 
scowling or disagreeable expression on their faces." 

When Sir Harry Smith had been recalled, his successor, 
Sir George Cathcart, concluded with the Boers " The Sand 
River Convention," by which the Transvaal became an 
independent State. Two years after this, in 1854, the 
Orange Free State was also put in the hands of the Boers. 

But the Boers always had difficulties with the natives, for 
they looked upon them as slaves by nature, and the natives 
hated the Boers. 

Sir George Grey had to intervene twice to rescue the 
Basutos from annihilation ; and though one condition of the 
Transvaal being given its independence was that there should 
be no slavery, the sale of " black ivory " still went on under 
the alias of "young apprentices." 

Five months before Frere landed, Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
had been sent out to confer with the president of the Trans- 
vaal on confederation under England. When Frere had been 
a fortnight in South Africa a telegram came from the north to 
say that the Transvaal had been annexed. Frere had had no 
part in this, and doubted lest the Boers had only done this to 
get rid of their difficulties with the natives. Besides this, 

298 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

the Boers had now only twelve shillings and sixpence left in 
their treasury ! and the gaols were thrown open, because they 
could not afford to feed the prisoners. Lastly, King Cete- 
wayo had gathered 30,000 warriors to invade the Transvaal. 
To stop this, Shepstone sent a messenger to Cetewayo telling 
him that the Transvaal was now under the Queen of Eng- 
land and he must beware of any aggression. To which the 
Zulu king replied : " I thank my father Somtseu for his 
message. I am glad that he has sent it, because the Dutch 
have tired me out, and I intended to fight with them and drive 
them over the Vaal. ... It was to fight the Dutch I called 
my Impis together. Now I will send them back to their 
houses." Lord Carnarvon accepted and ratified the annexa- 
tion of the Transvaal to save the country from being over- 
run and the Boers from being massacred. 

The proclamation of annexation was received by the 
Boers with gratitude and delight, though it was three weeks 
before any British soldiers marched into the Transvaal from 
Natal. 

In August, Frere left Cape Town for Natal and the 
Transvaal, but as he reached King William's Town he found 
a Kaffir war brewing against the Fingoes, who were British 
subjects, and had to remain long in British barracks. 

In February 1878 a battle was fought, and the Kaffir 
chief was defeated ; but just as Frere was coming out success- 
fully from this war the news came that Lord Carnarvon had 
resigned office. This news, he says, utterly took the heart 
out of him, and he was fain to go home and rest ; for he 
was not sure if statesmen at home would understand the 
position in Africa, where a spirit of unrest and mutiny 
was rising in all the native tribes, and the sparse popula- 
tion of white men were in grave peril. In September an 
awful Zulu massacre occurred, ordered by their king, for 
a number of Zulu girls had married without his leave. 

299 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

Accordingly Cetewayo ordered them and their parents to be 
killed, and their bodies to be exposed on the public ways. 
When Sir Henry Bulwer, Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, 
remonstrated with the king on this breach of his coronation 
promises, Cetewayo replied — 

" Did I promise not to kill ? I do kill. But why do 
the white people start at nothing ? I have not yet begun. 
I have yet to kill ; it is the custom of our nation, and I shall 
not depart from it. . . . My people will not listen to me 
unless I kill. Go back and tell the English that I shall now 
act on my own account. The Governor of Natal and I are 
equal. He is Governor of Natal, and I am governor here." 

An ultimatum was sent to Cetewayo : he was to abolish 
celibacy until the spears were washed in blood. It was 
doubtful if he would consent to this. Frere wrote home for 
troops to meet the Zulus if they should rise ; but Sir M. 
Hicks-Beach doubted if more troops could be spared. He 
thought that by meeting the Zulus in a spirit of forbearance 
Frere might avert the serious evil of a war ! 

It was the old trouble ! Not trusting the man on the 
spot, but thinking that the Zulus were good, reasonable 
creatures who only needed patience. The writer is reminded 
of an occasion when the great philosopher, J. S. Mill, quite 
spoilt the effect of his election speech by stopping to argue 
with a drunken man. The Zulus were as drunken men 
compared to Sir Michael. 

Lord Chelmsford also wrote for reinforcements, but " the 
Cabinet deprecated a Zulu war." 

Later, a few troops were sent from England, "for defence 
only." 

As the Zulu king sent no reply to the ultimatum, on the 
10th January 1879 our troops entered Zululand. 

On the 24th a message was brought to Frere's bedside, 
that two men had arrived from the British camp, speaking 

300 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

vaguely of a great disaster. It was the defeat of Isandhlwana ! 
One can imagine what a shock this news was to Frere and all 
with him ! There was a panic in all Natal, and in Maritz- 
burg hardly a family was not in mourning for one slain. The 
town was quickly put in defence, and a laager constructed 
under Frere's eyes. He also telegraphed to England and 
Cape Town for help. 

Mr. Gordon Sprigg at once sent all the English soldiers 
in the colony. 

On Sunday evening Lord Chelmsford rode in, so changed 
and worn that few recognised him, for anxiety and want of 
sleep had broken him down. But the Zulus had suffered 
great losses both at Isandhlwana and at Rorke's Drift, and 
they were in no mood now for facing the white men. But 
the Boers again were giving trouble, being discontented with 
the annexation. Four thousand of them assembled in arms 
to discuss their grievances between Newcastle and Pretoria. 

Frere rode into their camp without escort, and was re- 
ceived in stolid silence ; not a man amongst them acknow- 
ledged his salute. He sat down and spoke to them through 
an interpreter, saying that the annexation was irrevocable, 
but they might look to having complete freedom and local 
self-government in time. He exhorted them to help the 
English against the Zulus. His frank and open manner and 
evident sympathy with some of their demands changed the 
Boers, in the course of three or four meetings, from enemies 
to respectful friends. 

Frere went on to Pretoria and stayed with Colonel Lanyon 
till April ; and though the younger Boers were still restive 
and rude, Kruger said to him, " The people and the com- 
mittee have all conceived great respect for your Excellency, 
because your Excellency is the first high official of her 
Majesty who has laid bare the whole truth ; that esteem will 

not easily be lost." 

301 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

Meanwhile Sir Bartle was visiting the Boers in their 
houses, and was winning their confidence by his simple 
courtesy and friendly ways. 

On 18th April the Boer camp broke up and the disaffected 
dispersed, to Frere's great relief ; but on the same day Sir 
Bartle heard that the English Government had sent a de- 
spatch censuring his action. Frere was to bear the blame of 
the military disaster ! 

Speeches were made all over England attacking Frere 
as the unsympathetic and tyrannical ruler who had roused 
the Zulus to rebellion, and as one who bolstered up greedy 
colonists against simple unoffending blacks. But a letter 
in the Times said : " It was certain every friend of Sir B. 
Frere who knows the brave heart that beats beneath that 
courteous and gentle nature, and is aware of his deep in- 
terests in all native races throughout the world, would keep 
silence till the nation had pronounced its verdict." 

Lord Beaconsfield and a few others supported Frere, 
and as a compromise he was to be censured and asked not 
to resign. 

" I hope to God Sir Bartle won't take huff and resign," 
muttered Lord Granville, and angry passions were stirred on 
both sides. 

Frere, writing to Sir M. Hicks-Beach, remarked : " It 
seemed to me a simple choice between doing what I did — 
risking a Zulu war at once, or incurring the risk of still 
worse — a Zulu war a few months later, preceded by a Boer 
rebellion." 

" Unless my countrymen are much changed, they will 
some day do me justice," he wrote to another. 

But if in England only a few stood by the aged pro- 
consul, in South Africa, where they knew the facts and circum- 
stances, all races and colours were loud in his praise ; public 
meetings were held in towns and villages, addresses were 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

prepared and speeches made in honour of the man who had 
saved Natal and Cape Colony from an awful calamity. 

Sir Bartle was extolled as one of the best of governors — 
" the disasters which have taken place since he has held 
office are not due to any fault of his, but to a shameful mis- 
management of public affairs before he came to the colony. " 

Even at Pretoria Frere's health was drunk with enthu- 
siasm ; he was praised as " a true, considerate, and faithful 
servant of the queen." His journey back to Cape Town 
was one long, triumphant progress. 

On arrival at Cape Town, Frere found that Sir Garnet 
Wolseley had been sent out again to replace him "for a 
time " as High Commissioner of the Transvaal and Natal, 
and to supersede Lord Chelmsford. Frere was naturally 
hurt by this slight, but his patriotism made him stay on to 
help the colonists. 

Sir Garnet arrived at Cape Town on June 28th, but 
Chelmsford won the battle of Ulundi on July 5th, before the 
general could reach the seat of war. 

The Zulus had been subdued for the time ; but the 
Basutos were, some of them, in rebellion under a chief, 
Morosi, who was strongly entrenched in a hill-fort. Sir 
Garnet did not feel himself able to detach soldiers to help 
the colonial troops, and the fort was only taken at great 
cost of men and money. 

In April 1880 Mr. Gladstone came into power with a 
large majority, and it was doubted if he would retain the 
Transvaal. 

Meanwhile the Basutos, who had been attached to the 
Cape Colony in 1871, and had prospered peaceably, earning 
wages for a few months each year at the Kimberley mines, 
were swaggering about with guns, but doing no harm to 
their neighbours. 

However, Morosi's rebellion had called attention to them, 
303 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

and it was debated in the Cape Parliament whether they 
should be disarmed or no. Other tribes had been disarmed ; 
why should the Basutos be privileged ? They would be paid 
the price of arms surrendered, and licenses to carry arms 
would be given in special cases. 

On the other hand, it was pleaded, the Basutos had 
always behaved discreetly. They were proud of the right 
to bear arms, and would be made discontented if the Dis- 
arming Act were set in force. Also the French missionaries 
were encouraging the Basutos to stand up for their rights ; 
and in England the Aborigines Protection Society and the 
Radicals took the part of the Basutos. 

In June 1880 the Cape Premier attended the Petso, or 
General Council, in Basutoland, and saw a force of some 
8000 mounted natives, disciplined, excellent horsemen. He 
shuddered at the thought of a rebellion breaking out amongst 
these men. 

Several persons in the Free State, which adjoins Basuto- 
land, were selling the Basutos guns and encouraging them to 
revolt. 

Frere was persuaded against his inclinations to proclaim 
disarmament, having before his eyes the late savage raids of 
the Zulus. The Basuto chief, Letsea, and his more civilised 
followers obeyed the proclamation ; but the party of the 
witch-doctor and the savage, preferring war and plunder to 
industry and work, resisted the order. 

These latter were aware of the sympathy of the mission- 
aries and some of the English, and were thus prompted to 
make war upon their chief, Letsea, under the leadership of 
his son Lerothodi. They killed many loyal natives and stole 
their property, and actually ordered the magistrates to quit 
the country ! And the discontent spread into East Griqua- 
land and Pondoland ; but resistance on the part of the 
colonists was disapproved of by the English Government. 

304 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

The result of this was a Basuto war which lasted three 
years. 

In June 1880 ninety members of Parliament presented 
a memorial to Mr. Gladstone asking for the recall of Sir 
Bartle Frere. 

The sorrows of the natives loomed so largely in men's 
minds at home that they forgot to think about the awful 
perils of the colonists. 

The first step taken was to discontinue in June Frere's 
special allowance of i?2000 a year. In August, Lord Kim- 
berley sent Frere a telegraphic despatch to announce his 
recall on the ground of divergence of views between him and 
her Majesty's Government. 

The English people then began to breathe freely. They 
had recalled from motives of humanity to the black savages 
the man who had the most tender sympathy for the weak 
and oppressed. 

But the people who lived in the midst of these savages 
heard of his recall with indignation, fear, and sorrow. More 
than sixty resolutions were passed expressing their regrets 
and alarm. The colonists in Natal said, " We feel that in 
you we have had, and shall ever have, a true and earnest 
friend ... we confidently believe that when the truth is 
better known at home justice will be done to your Excel- 
lency." There was also a pathetic address from the natives 
of Mount Coke to Sir Bartle Frere. " Our hearts are very 
bitter this day. We hear that the queen calls you to 
England. We have not heard that you are sick ; then why 
have you to leave us ? By you we now have peace ; we sleep 
now without fear ... we have peace by you because God 
and the queen sent you. Do not leave us 1 " All the 
addresses are in the same strain, laying the reason of the 
recall upon the English Parliament. 

However, Sir Hercules Robinson was appointed governor, 
305 u 



SIR BARTLE FRERE, BART., G.C.B. 

and Sir Bartle left Cape Town in September 1880, his 
carriage being drawn by sympathising friends through the 
crowds that had poured in from the country districts to bid 
him God-speed. 

It was not the first nor yet the second time that the 
governors of the Cape had been recalled by the home 
authorities. It is possible for one man to err, and to need 
recall ; but when the colonists are unanimous in their verdict 
that the governor has done right, the probability is that 
they are correct, and that the man who lives many thousand 
miles away is mistaken. 

In Frere's case neither of the two parties in Parliament 
cared much how things went in South Africa. If they could 
have foreseen the future, some of them would have awoke to 
the sense of their wrong-doing. They did not foresee the 
Boers' 1 speedy demand for independence, now that British 
soldiers had died to save them from a Zulu massacre ; they 
did not foresee the death of Sir George Colley at Majuba 
and the defeat of his small force ; nor the surrender of the 
Transvaal to the Boers, with all the ruin of loyal colonists — 
from which surrender sprang our last Boer War, costing us 
and our chivalrous colonies so many brave men. But the 
result of that surrender led to native wars also, for the 
Boer republic was then too weak to repress marauding 
adventurers who calmly sliced out large tracts belonging to 
the Bechuanas and Basutos. After much anarchy and fight- 
ing, the British Government were forced to assume the 
protectorate of Bechuanaland in 1884 ; to do, in fact, what 
Frere had proposed to do four years before. 

Then as to Zululand, the ministers in England allowed 
the country to pass into anarchy and civil war. They who 
thought they knew best what to do sent back Cetewayo 
from England to take up his kingship. Within a week of 
his return he was attacked by a rival chief, 6000 of his men 

306 



A VERY PERFECT, GENTLE KNIGHT 

were killed, together with many women and children, and 
Cetewayo surrendered to the British Resident at Ekowe. 

On Frere's arrival at Southampton a deputation of Cape 
merchants presented him with an address of regret at his 
recall. 

The much abused governor had been wondering if party 
politicians might not seek to treat him like Clive and 
Warren Hastings, and put him to the ruinous expense of 
a trial. 

But there was one lady in the land who knew from his 
letters what he had tried to do, and who was not afraid to 
show her sympathy. Queen Victoria saw Frere at Balmoral, 
heard all his story, and healed his wounds by kindest 
sympathy. 

As time went on, the Colonial Office, finding Sir Bartle 
harboured no bitterness of feeling, consulted him on various 
questions ; though a section of the Press still attacked him 
with their old virulence. The old statesman made no reply, 
uttered no word of complaint, but those who knew him best 
saw that he suffered. His last public appearance was at a 
meeting of the Universities Mission. The next day he caught 
a chill, and after sixteen weeks of illness, a short rally and 
increased weakness, he fell asleep in May 1884. 

" I have looked down into the great abyss," he said to a 
friend, "but God has never left me through it all." 

This was a nobler saying than the " Tirez le rideau : la 
farce est jouee " of Voltaire. 

The time has surely come when Englishmen can now push 
aside political prejudice and admire the courage, chivalry, 
and gentleness of a great servant of his queen. 1 

1 From Martineau's Life, by kind permission of Sir Bartle Frere and 
Mr. Murray. 



307 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CECIL RHODES 

CECIL JOHN RHODES was born in the Vicarage of 
Bishop's Stortford on July 5, 1853, and he died on 
March 26, 1902. Forty-nine years sufficed for a 
penniless lad to succeed in adding to the British Empire 
a tract of country nearly as large as all Europe, omitting 
Russia. 

What he has done to shape the future history of the 
world none of us can yet realise ; it may be beyond human 
calculation. For even if our statesmen of the future throw 
away the heritage which Rhodes has left us, some other 
European Power will benefit by the civilising influences 
which the Chartered Company, inspired by Cecil Rhodes, 
has introduced into a land formerly given up to wild animals. 
And it was no vulgar ambition to win wealth and power 
that urged our hero to contend for expansion of territory. 
He had seen the unspeakable misery of the unemployed in 
England, and he had noted the wide and healthy domain 
which South Africa opened out for the worker. His ideal 
was to be a missionary of pleasant homes — English homes 
under better conditions than are found in the British Isles. 
How he realised that ideal we have been helped to ascertain 
by several good biographies, notably by that written by an 
" Imperialist " (Messrs. Chapman & Hall), and by the large 
life by the Hon. Sir Lewis Michell (Edward Arnold). 

It is surprising how many men of mark have been sons 
of the clergy ; England and the world would have lost much, 

308 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

as Europe loses, by the enforced celibacy of the clergy. 
The simple life of poor gentlemen seems to beget a finer, 
more persistent type of character than the life of the rich. 

Cecil Rhodes was sent at the age of eight as a day-boy 
to the Bishop's Stortford Grammar School, where he gained 
a classical scholarship. It is remarkable that the future 
financier should have shown then no mathematical talent. 
He has been described by a schoolfellow as "a delicate, 
golden-haired little fellow. " At the age of sixteen he left 
school and worked privately with his father, who saw that 
the dreamy, imaginative lad was ill-fitted for a city life, and 
shipped him off to Natal, whither his elder brother, Herbert, 
had gone to grow cotton. 

" Another boy disposed of — and God grant he may 
do well!" 

But the 200 acres at Lion's Kloof, near Richmond, 
nearly beggared the lads, whose first crop was a grand failure. 

" Never mind, Herbert ; let us not be beaten ! Cotton 
can be grown ! " 

Next year their difficulties were met and mastered, and 
the brothers even won a prize at the agricultural show. 

This first success burnt itself deep into Cecil's brain ; for 
in after years, when his friends chaffed him about his 
chimerical projects, he would reply, " So they said when 
Herbert and I proposed to grow cotton." But ever in the 
fields, or under the stoep, Cecil was wishing he could scrape 
money enough to go to Oxford and take a degree. 

In 1870 a prospecting party, including Herbert Rhodes, 
found a diamond bed on the Vaal River, and later another at 
Kimberley. Herbert begged his brother to give up farming 
and come to Kimberley ; so the lad joined his elder brother 
in November 1871, and set to work to win a second prize. 
It was a rough life — sleeping in a tent, sitting at a table 
sorting diamonds in the open air, keeping a sharp eye on 

309 



CECIL RHODES 

the Kaffirs who were breaking up the yellow earth, sifting 
the small gravel, picking out the rough shining gems — all 
in the dust and heat of blazing Griqualand. It was a life of 
toil tempered by pleasing anticipations of wealth. 

Herbert was restless and wanted to sell his claim, but 
Cecil meant it to be a success. He was at this time tall, 
pleasant-mannered, and clever, but sometimes odd and ab- 
stracted, and apt to contradict sharply. In fact, he believed 
strongly in himself ; a quality very useful to one who would 
rise in the world. For your fellow-men never rate you 
above your own estimation, until you have gone down into 
the grave ; and then it is a week too late, as the old saw 
quaintly hath it. 

Very soon hunting called Herbert away with the witchery 
of the veldt ; he sold his claim to Cecil, and Frank, another 
brother, came to the mine. Then the brothers set to and 
worked hard ; in the evenings they talked and thought over 
the best plan of action. It was agreed between them that 
the owners of the mines ought to amalgamate, and the 
prices should be regulated by restricting the amount of 
diamonds offered for sale. When diamonds are too plentiful 
fine ladies will not care to wear them. But in all the money- 
making Cecil still hankered after Oxford. So, in 1873, 
being now twenty years old, the young miner travelled back 
to England, and, after seeing his kinsfolk, came to Oxford. 

One story says that he was hesitating between University 
College and Oriel, and tossed up a shilling to decide the 
matter. 

But Sir Lewis Michell tells us that he called upon the 
master of University College, who promptly inquired if he 
intended to read for honours. Rhodes replied that he could 
not afford the time, as he was engaged in business in South 
Africa. 

The learned master smiled, and counselled him, with just 
310 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 

a twinkle in his eyes, to try at Oriel : " I think Oriel is a 
more appropriate college for you, Mr. Rhodes. I bid you 
good morning."" 

The master's eyes would have twinkled less merrily if he 
could have foreseen that his lofty recommendation of Oriel 
to a mere pass-man was to lose his own college i?l 00,000 ! 

But Cecil Rhodes was only a young and rather ill-dressed 
colonist ; Oriel no doubt was just the college for him. 

There seems to have been a brusque schoolboy manner 
about him still ; he was shy and apt to answer curtly, so 
that at first men thought him a bear. " He was unyielding," 
said one of his college friends ; " he trod on me, but I 
gradually got to understand him." 

They used to chaff him about his " Long Vac." trips to 
South Africa. 

" Ah ! yes, you fellows will be surprised one day — there 
will be developments there before long." 

" Developments ! why, Rhodes, are you going to grow 
out of your clothes ? " 

" I hope so," he would say dreamily. 
No doubt they got him to train for the "Eight," he 
was so tall and muscular ; but at the end of his first year he 
caught a chill after rowing, and went back to his diamond 
mine with a lung affected. 

But in a year or two he was back at Oriel and took his 
degree in 1881, having read his books on the veldt, in the 
jolting Cape-cart, and as he watched the niggers breaking 
up the ore. 

Sir Charles Warren remembers riding on a post-cart to 
Kimberley about the year 1877. There was a young English 
lad with him who kept diligently reading his prayer-book, 
and Warren, who was himself going up to make out the 
boundary of the Free State, thought to himself, "Poor 
devil I he is training for a missionary, no doubt. 11 On the 

311 



CECIL RHODES 

third day he could conceal his curiosity no longer. " What 
are you so busy reading, I wonder ? '' 

" The thirty-nine articles, sir ! " blurted out Rhodes. 

"Not a very interesting subject," said the middle-aged 
man. 

" Got to learn "em all, sir ; a way they have at Oxford." 

Then the two men began a friendship that lasted long, 
and discussed the troubles of mine-owners — the floods, the 
earth-falls, heavy taxation — so that Warren exclaimed : 
" One would think that you were a mine-owner rather than 
an Oxford undergraduate enjoying his 6 Long ' ! " 

" I am both, sir ; my firm is Rhodes, Rudd, & Alderson, 
and I am Rhodes." 

So, first with Rudd and then with Alfred Beit, he mined 
and traded, made money, and pondered how best to spend it 
for England's sake. 

As he said, " I read the history of other countries and 
saw that expansion was everything ; and that, the world's 
surface being limited, the great object of present humanity 
should be to take as much of the world as it possibly 
could." 

His first will, made in 1877, when he was in his twenty- 
fifth year, and the mine was going through troublous times, 
proves the strength of his ideals. For he bequeathed to 
the Secretary of State for the Colonies several millions 
(which he did not possess) to establish a secret society, the 
true aim and object whereof should be the extension of 
British rule throughout the world ; there was to be also a 
system of colonial representation in the British Parliament. 

We have not yet reached the latter reform, and Cecil's 
will still seems to us somewhat Utopian. 

In 1878 Rhodes first met Dr. Jameson at Kimberley, 
who had come to settle in practice as a doctor. 

They shared lodgings and meals, rode out together, ex- 
312 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

changed views on all things under heaven, and discussed the 
dreams of the young mine-owner. 

" I soon admitted to myself that for sheer natural power 
I had never met a man to come near Cecil Rhodes." 

For Rhodes had then thought out most of the projects 
which he succeeded in translating into action. He was not 
only a man of ideas, he was never happy until he had 
carried them out into deeds ; and first of all came the 
amalgamation of the diamond mines. 

For until that time there was a cut- throat competition 
going on between the forty companies and one thousand 
properties that held land or shares, and to consolidate these 
took both time and money. 

It was not until 1880 that he was able to register the 
De Beers Mining Company. But in the same year Mr. 
Barnet Isaacs founded the Barnato Mining Company, and 
began buying up claims in opposition to Rhodes. By 1887 
these two companies had swallowed up all the smaller. 
There was a third large company, the Compagnie Francaise : 
this company Rhodes bought out for ^l, 400,000. He then 
offered the French claims to Barnato at cost price — payment 
to be made in Barnato's Kimberley shares. 

This seemed good ; but when Barnato had bought the 
French shares he found that Rhodes held too large a share 
in his own company ! 

" Rhodes was a great man," grumbled Barnato, " for he 
bested me." 

In 1880 Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament and began 
by making friends with Jan Hofmeyer, the leader of the 
Africander Bond, with the idea of getting Dutch help to 
push north and expand the Empire. 

They were both protectionists, and Rhodes undertook 
to defend the protection system of Cape Colony, while 
Hofmeyer pledged himself in the name of the Bond not 

313 



CECIL RHODES 

to throw any obstacles in the way of northern expansion. 
This bargain was loyally observed until Kruger stepped in 
and influenced the Bond to covert rebellion. 

In 1882 the Basutos were giving trouble — "Chinese 
Gordon " had been called in to settle the quarrel and make 
peace. Rhodes, the member for Barkly West, had been 
sent up as one of the Compensation Commission to com- 
pensate the loyal natives who had lost their all in the war 
for having sided with the Cape Government. 

Gordon and Rhodes thus were thrown much into one 
another's society ; they took long walks together, and the 
biography by " Imperialist " (Chapman & Hall) recounts some 
of those interesting conversations. 

Both men were apt to lay down the law, and Rhodes, 
who seems to have been unaware that he was in the company 
of a great man, did not scruple to contradict Gordon. 

" You always contradict me," said Gordon once ; " I 
never met such a man for his own opinion. You think 
your views are always right, and every one else wrong." 

Rhodes said little at the time, but when the Basutos 
came in their thousands to greet Gordon as a great chief, 
Rhodes pretended to see a fault in Gordon's manner. " You 
are letting those Basutos take you for the great man and 
pay no attention to Sauer ; it is true Sauer is only a village 
attorney, but he is Secretary for Foreign Affairs and a 
member of the Government which employs you." 

The taunt sank deep into Gordon's humble heart. At the 
very next " indaba " Gordon stood forth before the chiefs and said, 
" You do wrong to treat me as the great chief of the whites " ; 
and pointing to Mr. Sauer, he shouted, " That is the great 
man. I am only his servant, only his dog ; nothing more." 

After the " indaba " was over Gordon sighed and said to 

Rhodes, "I did it because it was the right thing — but — 

but it was hard, very hard." 

314 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

Rhodes was astonished, we hope, at his pleasantry being 
taken so seriously ; he must have felt he was in the presence 
of a power different from his own, and higher. Rhodes 
could earn wealth and spend it wisely ; he could foresee the 
use of such material things as land and diamonds, and set 
himself to enlarge the bounds of his country's Empire ; but 
here was a man who thought little of material blessings in 
comparison with spiritual wealth. This man he had urged 
to humble himself before his inferiors ; let us hope that the 
younger man felt some shame for what he had done. 

Gordon perhaps perceived that his companion did not 
know his antecedents, for he began to tell him of the 
Taiping rebellion in China. "I was thirty years old then 
(it was in 1863) and could afford to dash about madly ; but 
it took some crushing, I can tell you. The Emperor of 
China offered me a roomful of gold as a reward." 

" What did you do ? " asked Rhodes. 

" Refused it, of course ; what would you have done ? " 

"I would have taken it," said Rhodes with a laugh, 
" and as many more roomfuls as they would give me. It 
is no use, sir, for us to have big ideas if we have not got the 
money to carry them out." 

"What are you going to do, Rhodes, when you have 
finished your compensation work ? " 

" Oh ! I must go back to Kimberley and look after the 
diamond mines." 

" Stay with me in Basutoland," said Gordon ; " we can 
work together." 

" No, no ! my work is mapped out for me at Kimberley." 

Gordon urged him to stay, but Rhodes shook his head 
and said " No." 

" Well, Rhodes, there are very few men in the world to 
whom I would make such an offer — very few men, I can 
tell you ; but of course you will have your own way." 

315 



CECIL RHODES 

Gordon no doubt saw the good points in Rhodes and 
wished to serve him. 

Rhodes was hardly able to appreciate his companion's 
greatness, for Gordon was moving on a higher plane. He 
was forty-nine, and had exercised almost royal powers in 
the Sudan ; had been often alone with God in the desert, 
and had suffered many things because of man's cruelty and 
wickedness. Gordon was destined to suffer again in South 
Africa, for after Rhodes left him he went up to the Basuto 
chief and was conducting negotiations for peace when the 
news came that the Cape Government were sending up troops 
through Sauer to take the Basutos unawares. Then the 
righteous man of God, in indignation at such double-dealing, 
threw up his command and went back to England. 

The Basutos — perhaps we are not much interested in them 
yet, but they are a strong and brave people, who voluntarily 
put themselves into our charge and protection. They used to 
work for white men, and get their wages in the shape of guns 
and ammunition. Therefore, when the Cape Government 
demanded these guns, they were naturally full of anger, and 
went to war for the possession of that which they had worked 
for. In the Boer War, if the Basutos had not been neutral, 
we should have had a difficult nut to crack, for they possess 
a strong mounted force, and their country is mountainous. 

There is one more thing to be said. An officer just 
returned from Natal told the writer that the next war on 
our hands would be with the Basutos ! If they would not 
work, they must be made to work ! In this year, 1882, 
Rhodes got the cession of half Bechuanaland, for the 
Bechuanas preferred the protection of the British to the 
freebooting of the Boers. The Cape refused it, but Rhodes 
got the governor to induce the home Government to 
take it. 

But his experience of the difficulties raised by govern- 
316 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

ments before they would establish protectorates convinced 
him that the best plan to carry out his policy of expansion 
was to create a chartered company. It was time he began, 
for President Kruger was sending out expeditions to occupy 
the best parts of Zululand and Bechuanaland. But Rhodes 
in the Cape Parliament secured the latter province by send- 
ing Sir Charles Warren to expel the intruders, though in all 
other respects he always tried to be on good terms with the 
Boers. 

By 1888 Rhodes had made a great fortune, and was 
becoming one of the chief personages in the Parliament. 
He used his power to obtain a royal charter for his 
company, of which he became the manager, and in 1890 
was made premier, and remained in that position, in alliance 
with Mr. Hofmeyer and the Africander Bond. 

We cannot follow all the mazes of politics by which 
Rhodes savec^ Matabeleland from the clutches of Kruger, nor 
the journeys to London to get the help of the greatest 
financiers, nor the sending of Dr. Jameson to Lobengula to 
get a concession of his mineral rights in return for an income 
and a supply of rifles, nor recount how he wished to buy 
Delagoa Bay from the Portuguese ; but the home Govern- 
ment cared not for it, though the possession of it would have 
made a Boer War impossible. This man's mind was open 
to wide surveys, and ministers, who must ever be attending 
to the petty intrigues of party government, can seldom 
appreciate such large ideals. However, Rhodes could not 
wait until British ministers were educated. He raised a 
force of 500 police and 200 pioneers, and began to cut a 
road to Mashonaland through bush and forest. 

The Matabele king sent to forbid the making of a road, 
but the pioneers, led by Dr. Jameson and Mr. Selous, pushed 
on till they came out of the forest and reached the plateau 
of Mashonaland. Here, in 1891, Dr. Jameson became 

317 



CECIL RHODES 

administrator, and was a great success owing to his un- 
selfishness and sympathy. 

But suddenly the Matabele pushed their cruel raids up 
to Victoria, the new capital, for the Mashonas lacked spirit 
to defend themselves. Conflicts with the native police stirred 
Lobengula to wrath, and more raids were made. At this 
time the funds of the Chartered Company were low, but 
Rhodes assisted to pay for the defence out of his private 
purse, as he had done for constructing the Mafeking railway, 
and the Beira railway, and the Trans-Continental telegraph. 

Dr. Jameson took command of the 900 Europeans, and 
fought two battles against the Matabele. In the latter, on 
the Imbebesi, the Matabele charged his laager assegai in 
hand, meaning to break through and massacre every man 
within the laager ; but machine-guns and rifles mowed the 
brave natives down, and Lobengula lost about 7000 of his 
best men. The colonists moved on to Bulawayo and took 
it. Lobengula fled, and was pursued by Major Forbes. 

In order to catch the king, Major Wilson with thirty- 
eight men made a brilliant dash in front of the colonists and 
advanced right up to the royal waggon, but they were 
forced back by superior numbers, and were obliged to make 
a stand on the Shangani River, forming a barricade of their 
horses 1 bodies. As the black hordes pressed round, the few 
survivors at the last, unwilling to abandon their wounded, 
stood up and sang " God Save the Queen," and so gave up 
their lives for the expansion of our Empire. After the war 
Jameson's volunteers were disbanded and selected farms, and 
Bulawayo soon became a thriving English city. 

Rhodes and Jameson both treated the Boers well, and 
many of these useful farmers settled on the healthy uplands 
of Mashonaland. They also provided for the good treat- 
ment of the natives by prohibiting the use of the whip and 
the selling of alcoholic liquor to them. The putting down 

318 



THE EMPIRE BUILDER 

of witchcraft and its horrible attendant cruelties, the stop- 
ping of Matabele raids even as far as the Zambezi, the sub- 
stitution of regular labour for idleness and rapine, form a 
good enough reason for our taking so large a country under 
our protection. 

The Pax Britannica is no idle imitation of Roman times. 
It exists for the good of the weaker and the ignorant. 

The Chartered Company, under the chairmanship of 
Rhodes, sent i?l 0,000 a year to help Sir Harry Johnston 
in his civilising work in the Central Africa Protectorate. 
By this help an excellent force of Sikhs and Zanzibaris 
subdued the slave-dealing chiefs and put a stop to the 
atrocious cruelties exercised on the gentler tribes. 

Yet in London many newspapers spoke against Rhodes as 
an adventurer pursuing selfish ends. They neither knew what 
he was doing nor what he was in himself. But time tries all. 

In 1895 the large population of Johannesburg, mostly 
British, had appealed to the Transvaal Government under 
Kruger for a change in the severe laws passed against the 
"Uitlanders." 

For these hard-working foreigners paid nearly nineteen- 
twentieths of the taxation, and were not represented at all. 
The Uitlanders — doctors, lawyers, and working classes — de- 
manded equal rights with the Dutch. They did not see 
why they alone should be made to pay taxes on food and 
clothing ; why they should have to pay for Boer schools and 
get no help for their own. 

All their petitions were received with derision, and the 
Dutch openly insulted them, and challenged them to fight 
for the suffrage. 

At last the Uitlanders appealed to Cecil Rhodes to help 
them ; but he had always been on good terms with the Dutch 
in the Cape, and hesitated to take so great a risk and perhaps 
lose half his influence. 

319 



CECIL RHODES 

But when Dr. Jameson, his great friend, after mixing 
with the miners and workmen, reported to Cape Town that 
the people were ready to rise in rebellion, Rhodes promised 
to help the Reform Committee, though the capitalists gene- 
rally would have nothing to do with the movement. 

President Kruger was determined to show that he was 
master. He began by quadrupling the rates on all goods 
coming from Cape Colony to the Rand, for he wished to 
divert the traffic to his own railroad from Delagoa Bay. 
When the goods were taken out on the frontier and placed 
on waggons to be hauled to Johannesburg, Kruger closed 
the drifts or fords where carts could cross the deep -banked 
rivers. Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary to the Colonies, threat- 
ened war. President Kruger reopened the drifts, but sent 
embassies to Germany. 

Meanwhile Dr. Jameson had been collecting men and 
arms, yet he did not estimate rightly the warlike preparations 
of the Boers. 

The reformers had resolved to try to surprise the Boer 
arsenal, but some one informed Kruger, and it could not be 
attempted. 

Rhodes, hearing this, advised the reformers to wait : 
" You can try peaceful methods first, and I can keep Jameson 
on the frontier," he said. But Jameson did not understand 
this soon enough ; owing to the delay of a telegram he had 
started for the Transvaal. 

Rhodes had telegraphed : " On no account must you 
move ; I most strongly object to such a course," but Dr. 
Jameson did not get the message in time. Jameson first 
ordered the wires to Pretoria to be cut, but the troopers sent 
to do this got drunk instead, and Kruger heard of the 
invasion. 

Jameson wasted one day in attacking Krugersdorp ; then 
next morning a guide took him and his party into a spruit 

320 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

where there was no cover. Horses and men were tired out ; 
the Boers were waiting for them with Krupp guns loaded ; 
their friends in Johannesburg, twenty thousand valiant men, 
knew not what was happening. Jameson was in an impos- 
sible position, and was forced to surrender, to the indignation 
of the Johannesburg reformers, who had had no chance of 
fighting. 

When Rhodes heard this news on Sunday, December 
29th, he was for a time crushed ; thought his political life 
was ruined, and that all his schemes for extending the Em- 
pire were overthrown. But his anxiety for his friend Dr. 
Jameson was greater than his fears for himself. He was 
ready to take all the responsibility on his own shoulders. 

" Poor old Jameson," he said ; " twenty years we have 
been friends, and now he goes in and ruins me. I cannot 
hinder him ; I cannot destroy him." 

It was at this time that the German Kaiser sent his 
telegram of congratulation to Kruger on the repulse of 
"Jameson's Raid." 

Great was the indignation in England, and a flying 
squadron was at once commissioned, for it was discovered 
that Germany had asked permission of Portugal to land 
marines at Delagoa Bay. 

When, in 1899, Rhodes was asked by the Kaiser his 
opinion on that telegram, Rhodes replied — 

"I will tell your Majesty in a few words : it was the 
greatest mistake you ever made in your life ; but you did 
me the best turn one man ever did another. w 

As to the Johannesburg folk, the High Commissioner at 
Cape Town had issued a proclamation ordering them to 
give no help to Jameson. But Jameson and his men had 
been taken to Pretoria, and the leaders were thrown into 
prison on a charge of high treason, and sentenced to death. 
Kruger afterwards commuted this to a fine of i?25,000 for 

321 x 



CECIL RHODES 

each leader. Others also were fined, and President Kruger 
netted some ^l 2,000, which he called inflicting a " nominal 
punishment. " 

Meanwhile Cecil Rhodes had resigned his position as 
premier, and retired to the seclusion of his mountain home, 
Groote Schuur, where he brooded over the way of the world 
— the tendency to strike at a man when he is down. 

He was summoned to England, and had interviews with 
Mr. Chamberlain and the directors of the Chartered Com- 
pany ; but as the trials at Pretoria were not yet over, he 
preserved a discreet reticence. 

Rhodes soon returned to Rhodesia, having resigned his 
post as managing director of the Chartered Company. 
Earl Grey succeeded Dr. Jameson as the chief official of the 
Chartered Company in Rhodesia. 

It was early in 1896 that Rhodes went back to Bulawayo, 
and set to work to push on the two railways and the nor- 
thern telegraph, and to encourage the settlers to take up 
farm ranches. 

The natives were quiet until the rinderpest crossed the 
Zambezi and attacked the cattle in Matabeleland ; then a 
rebellion broke out, which Sir Baden-Powell helped to 
suppress. We will only add that Rhodes took part in the 
fighting, and had some narrow escapes. Once he was fired 
at from the bush at thirty paces — a regular volley — and 
took things very coolly. At this time some newspapers in 
London were accusing Rhodes of being a coward. 

When the Imperial troops under General Carrington could 
do no more than drive the Matabele from kopje to kopje, and 
Rhodes saw that to bring the war to an end by force would 
ruin the company, while it was absurd to think the Indunas 
would come down to Bulawayo to be tried for their lives, as 
Sir R. Martin had ordered, he stepped forward and offered to 
go unarmed to the Matoppos and meet the Matabele chiefs. 




Rhodes and the Matabele Warriors 

Rhodes listening to the grievances of the Matabele. 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

He accordingly moved his unarmed camp up to the foot- 
hills of the Matoppos, not far from the Impis of the Mata- 
bele. This he did in order to inspire trust in the Indunas, 
though friends shook their heads sagely and said, " Poor 
Rhodes will be speared some night before long." 

However, one noon, John Grootboom, the well-known 
Xosa Kaffir, came into Rhodes' camp and told him that a 
great indaba, or council, was to be held a few miles off in 
the hills — if the white chief and his interpreter, Johan 
Colenbrander, would come to the indaba, they would be 
welcome. 

Rhodes at once seized the opportunity. He took Colen- 
brander, Dr. Hans Sauer, and Captain Stent, and two natives, 
and entered the winding path that leads through granite 
kopjes and thick scrub up into the Matappos. Rhodes 
carried no weapon, only a switch ; in this he was perhaps 
imitating Gordon, who carried only a cane through the 
Taiping war in China. 

At last they came through a narrow gorge into a small 
level space surrounded by lofty walls of rock ; the Matabele 
warriors were sitting on the heights and behind the boulders 
above the amphitheatre. When Rhodes dismounted, the 
Matabele came down in single file, headed by a white flag, 
and sat down round the four white men. Rhodes, sitting 
on the side of an ant-heap, greeted them in Zulu, and the 
Indunas responded courteously. 

Then Colenbrander addressed the chiefs : " Tell your 
troubles to Rhodes, your father. He has come among you 
unarmed, with peace in his heart." At this the Indunas, 
one by one, began to explain their grievances ; of which 
the chief was the misconduct of the native police, who lorded 
it over them, misused the women, and seized the cattle. 

" There shall be no more native police," said Rhodes by 
the interpreter. Then they spoke of the killing of their 

323 



CECIL RHODES 

cattle, and it was explained how this was done to stamp out 
the rinderpest ; at which they murmured. 

Then Rhodes and Colenbrander whispered and murmured 
together. 

" No ! no ! " said the interpreter ; " it is too dangerous 
to say that." 

But Rhodes insisted. 

" The white chief is not angry with you for fighting ; but 
why did you kill the women and children ? For this, he says, 
you deserve no forgiveness." 

There was a long silence. Would the chief Induna raise 
his hand and order the daring white chief to be put to death ? 

At last Rhodes raised his head, and, looking the Indunas 
in the face, said, " Now, is it peace, or is it war ? " 

One of the Indunas held up a stick and threw it down at 
the feet of Rhodes, crying, " See ! this is my gun ; I throw 
it down at your feet ; this is my assegai ! " and all the Indunas 
assented. 

Then Rhodes went on, telling them that unless peace was 
made at once the time for sowing would be over, and famine 
would come. " I will remain with you in the land, and you 
can come to me with your troubles." 

This was loudly applauded ; they all cried, " It is peace. 
Your road to Tuli is safe. Farewell, father and king," they 
shouted, lifting right hands on high. 

Rhodes had risked his life for England and the cause of 
peace. He had treated the Kaffirs as reasonable men ; he 
had trusted them, and begotten a new trust in him. 

For eight weeks Rhodes stayed in his camp by the 
Matoppos, and received repeated visits from the Indunas, 
and earned their respect. 

Earl Grey came to the last indaba, and made the Indunas 
salaried officials of the company and responsible for the good 
conduct of the men. It was cheaper than employing native 

324 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

police, and wiser to rule the natives by their own natural 
leaders. 

Thus a proud and valiant people, instead of being 
annihilated by machine-guns, have begun an upward pro- 
gress to higher things. 

After performing this beneficial and daring act in the 
Matoppos, Rhodes was summoned to Westminster to be 
examined before a select committee of the House. 

A great reception was given him at Port Elizabeth and 
at Kimberley, and even by the Dutch, who knew that Rhodes 
was against all race-feeling, and welcomed any of them that 
went to Rhodesia. 

The Boers had already forgiven him his mistake in con- 
nection with Johannesburg and the raid ; but many men and 
parties in England, who knew not what good Rhodes had 
done, were still loudly calling for his disgrace and punish- 
ment. They did not see that President Kruger was the 
prime cause of the rebellion against Boer authority by his 
unjust taxes, tyranny, and hostility. 

We need not follow Rhodes 1 life further. Most of us 
can remember how he threw himself into Kimberley at the 
last moment when it was being besieged, and how he joined 
heart and soul in the defence, and placed all the resources of 
the De Beers mines at the disposal of the queers officers. 

But he never recovered his health after that, and died on 
March 26, 1902, in his house in South Africa. 

Dr. Jameson has shown how Rhodes cared for the natives 
and trusted them, both in their wild homes and in the Kim- 
berley mines. Rhodes liked to be with them, and on Sunday 
afternoons used to go into the De Beers compound, where he 
had constructed a large swimming-bath, and throw in coins 
for the natives to dive for. He could talk to them in their 
language, and they regarded him as a kind of father. 

At Groote Schuur his servants were all natives, some 
325 



CECIL RHODES 

coming as far as from Matabeleland. Two of Lobengula's 
sons were at school near his house, and had the run of his 
grounds. 

Rhodes seemed to regard the natives as children, to be 
loved but kept in order. In return they trusted him, and 
knew that amongst white men none was so true a friend as 
the big white chief, Cecil Rhodes. 

Yet a Londoner, on meeting at club or hotel the tall, 
heavily-built, carelessly -dressed man, might not discern in 
him at first the far-seeing statesman, the founder of great 
colonies. The sunburnt face and dreamy grey eyes did not 
betoken the energy and will-power that resisted all the 
obstacles that mean men place in the way of reformers. But 
the strong chin and firm mouth, drooping at the corners to 
good-natured sarcasm ; the sudden interest in a subject akin 
to his sympathies ; the quick striding up and down the room ; 
the words leaping forth sharp and to the point — all might 
convince an onlooker that here was no conventional follower 
of social customs, but a bluff, downright doer of deeds, 
regardless of the world's opinion. 

The Kaiser soon found out the sterling worth of the 
man, and held long conversations with him ; though he might 
have felt that Rhodes had, more than any one, hindered 
Germany's expansion. Yet the Kaiser was impressed by his 
greatness, for they were both men of vivid imagination, both 
men of impetuous action. Rhodes, though so rich, lived a 
simple life, and the only expensive tastes he had were for 
helping England to conquer the wilds of Africa, by road- 
making, railways, telegraphs, and education. His last will 
proves his unselfish benevolence, and the Rhodes scholars at 
Oxford are placed there at his expense mainly to develop a 
better feeling of goodwill between Germany, England, and 
America. 

We have shown how Rhodes stopped a war by going 
326 



THE EMPIRE-BUILDER 

unarmed amongst the Matabele ; but the way in which he 
opposed Sir Richard Martin, who was bent on making the 
Indunas come down for trial, proves his courage quite as 
much. For Rhodes knew that the Indunas would never 
submit to being tried, and he solemnly warned Sir Richard 
that if he persisted in his terms and began war again with 
the natives, he would have to fight the premier of Cape 
Town too. " My honour and my pledged word are at stake ; 
if you persist, I will go into the Matoppos, cast in my lot 
with the natives, and live with them." 

Happily, Sir Richard gave way ; the natives were trusted, 
and have loyally kept the compact which they made with the 
" Great White Chief." 

That instance of unbending resolution was speedily fol- 
lowed by unbounded generosity, for after the war was over 
the natives were in danger of starving, but Rhodes gave 
i?50,000 out of his private purse for Earl Grey to buy corn 
and other necessaries. 

How dearly Rhodes loved Dr. Jameson is shown by the 
following story. 

One day a friend approached Rhodes and remarked, " I 
am afraid a terrible thing has happened, Rhodes. What 
is it ? Why, Groote Schuur has been burned down." 
" Thank God ! " was the reply ; " I thought you were going 
to tell me that old Jameson was d3ang." x 

And now the body that enshrined this great soul lies far 
away among the hills of the Matoppos. 

1 From the Life, by "Imperialist," by kind permission of the Author 
and Messrs. Chapman & Hall. 



327 



CHAPTER XIX 

J. T. BENT, F.S.A., AND MASHONALAND 

THERE are heroes of science as well as of action. 
Before we leave South Africa we must devote a 
few pages to the work of Mr. and Mrs. Bent in 
exploring the ruined cities of Mashonaland. 

The Ruined Cities, published by Messrs. Longmans, 
Green & Co. in 1892, gives an interesting account of 
their travels and discoveries. 

They left Vryburg in March 1891, with two waggons, 
thirty-six oxen, and tinned food in mountainous heaps, and 
in a week arrived at Mafeking. Here they were detained 
by rains some days ; then on through a treeless country, laid 
bare by the cutting down of timber for the Kimberley mines. 
Progress was not very rapid, as the waggons had to be un- 
loaded and dug out of spruits, bogs, and rivers six times or 
more. 

As they advanced north towards Khama 1 s country they 
heard that lung sickness was prevalent, and were obliged to 
have the oxen inoculated. This was done by passing a 
string steeped in the virus through the animals' tails by 
a needle. The oxen, not being scientific, deeply resented 
the operation, but being fastened two and two by the horns 
their protests were " mooed " in vain. 

At Kanya they found the chief, Batuen, and his dark 
people so devoted to the teaching of the missionaries that an 
order was posted at the entrance of the town to the effect 
that no waggons might enter or leave Kanya on Sunday. 

328 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

Any one who breaks this law pays a fine of one ox for the 
profit of the community. 

The huts here were grouped into circular kraals of ten 
each, hedged in by palisades and surrounded by larger fenced 
enclosures. 

The town was set on a hill, having a circular piazza for 
meetings planted with shady trees. Many women lay lazily 
about, teaching their children to sing and dance, and all 
very merry ; for they now had no Boers or Matabele to fear, 
being under British protection. Soldiers were parading 
before the chiefs house, quaintly clad in old red coats and 
soft hats decorated with ostrich feathers. Their bare, black 
legs gave a touch of nature to the military garb above. 
After Kanya the scenery grew more undulating and wooded, 
being diversified by red granite kopjes. 

But soon they got into the eastern side of the Kalahari 
desert, a country covered with camel-thorn and bushes 
whose roots go deep to find water. Like the bush of 
Australia, the land will be fertile when artesian wells bring 
the water to the surface. 

The few natives who live in the desert seem timid and 
shy. They carry poisoned arrows to kill game with, make a 
grass shelter at night, and live on worms, snakes, and roots. 
They venerate the crocodile, and refrain from harming that 
animal. 

It was a long journey to Khama's land through tangles 
of mimosa thorn and " wait-a-bit " thorn, relieved only by 
lovely flowers and ant-hills tapering fifteen feet high, varied 
by black spiders weaving their webs from tree to tree, by 
puff-adders and green tree snakes coiled in the grass. At 
night you heard the baboons scream and the jackals laugh, 
and you longed for dawn. 

Khama, one of the black heroes of Africa, a king who 
has visited London and seen many cities, was no sooner pro- 

329 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

tected by the British than he moved his capital from Shoe- 
hong, which lay in a deep ravine entered by a single gorge, 
to Palapwe, sixty miles away in the midst of an open, fertile 
plain. Fifteen thousand people were moved in good order 
under Khama's directions, and now the old capital lies over- 
grown with the castor-oil plant, while the long poles that 
fenced the cattle-kraals have sprouted, and the yards have 
become groves. Here, in the rooms where Moffat and 
Livingstone once stayed, only baboons and owls are the 
tenants in chief, and you can't see the city for the thorns. 

Mr. Bent had heard so much of Khama's enlightened 
government that he tells us he advanced towards Palapwe 
fully prepared to find this Christian chief a rascal and a 
hypocrite ; but he left his capital, after a week's stay there, 
" one of his most fervent admirers. " 

For Khama had raised his people to the level of Norwe- 
gian honesty. They steal no more, neither do they cheat ; 
so our explorer assures us. The tyrannical king, abhorred 
by socialists, regulates all prices, and sees to it that his laws 
are kept. When his subjects are unemployed they can bask 
under the fine trees that cover the slopes of the hill ; or if 
they wish to see life and hear wise sentences they have only 
to enter the grassy square where the king and his Indunas sit 
in council under the tree of justice, and a purling brook runs 
at their feet and sings a song of mercy and judgment. 

High on the hill lives the spiritual adviser of the king — 
no witch-doctor or medicine-man, but good Mr. Hepburn, 
the accredited missionary, whose grounds are intersected by 
a deep and cool ravine bursting with tropical vegetation, 
and echoing to the falls of Foto-foto, a wild stream leaping 
from the head of the gorge in many a noisy, mad cascade, as 
it rolls rocks and stones along its winding bottom. 

Sunday is almost a Scotch Sabbath in Khama's town, for 
the king himself conducts a native service, and expects every 

330 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

man to do his duty to God by attending at least once. He 
has even instituted the old monastic system of espionage, 
and detectives cut a notch on the stick against any loafer 
who has been tempted by sleep or tobacco to absent himself. 

"The Proctor wishes to see you to-morrow at nine," 
whispers the king's messenger in academic dignity, and the 
defaulter is fined accordingly. 

King Khama was a great ruler, for he had swept away all 
licensed victuallers. His subjects may neither brew nor 
drink native beer ! Mr. Hepburn himself thought this was 
too strong a measure of reform, but Khama replied : " Beer 
is the source of all our quarrels and disputes ; I mean to 
stop it entirely." 

Perhaps his prohibition of consulting witch-doctors 
shows still more strongly the powerful influence this black 
Christian has had over his people. For the Sechuana still 
held, along with fragments of Christianity, their belief in 
good and bad spirits, the latter being sufficiently power- 
ful to require special charms and incantations. Another 
religious relic is their reverence for the roebuck, a venera- 
tion which the king has vainly essayed to weaken by 
partaking of a haunch or hot shoulder of that animal. 
Khama was courteous and dignified in manner. He kept 
a good stud, and rode about like a gentleman, and visited 
outlying kraals and stores. On his waggons he had painted 
in English letters, " Khama, Chief of the Ba-mangwato." 

Though strict in discipline, he was loved as a father, for he 
called every woman " my daughter," and every man " my son." 

It was curious to note the change in dress which had lately 
begun. The ladies of the Indunas and head-men stroll about 
in gaudy cotton dresses, flower hats, and parasols. They 
giggle with self-conscious shyness as you meet them on an 
evening promenade. Anon you pass a bevy of working 
women, nude, save for a loin-cloth of leopard-skin and a 

331 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

small kaross, or skin, thrown over their shoulders. Far 
more picturesque are these latter in their native dress, and 
their natural modesty needs no outside cover of flaunting 
rags. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bent left Palapwe with regret, and felt 
nothing but admiration for a chief who had transformed a 
tribe of cringing cowards into a virtuous, industrious, and 
loyal people. 

Faring northwards our travellers reached the Makalanya, 
Children of the Sun (Ma, children ; ka, of ; lanya, the sun), 
a weak branch of the Zulus. 

They were now in a land governed by Rhodes 1 Chartered 
Company ; no longer flat and monotonous, but varied by 
fantastic hills of red granite, deep river-bed, and huge baobab 
trees centuries old. Here the naked villagers swarmed round 
their waggons in order to barter flour, honey, and sour milk 
for beads. The villages were usually perched high amongst 
stupendous boulders for security against raiding tribes, and 
the ladies were vain enough to polish their skins like 
mahogany by chewing the monkey-nut and asking a friend 
to rub it in by elbow-grease. 

Red beads threaded into necklaces looked well on the 
dark background, and some wore a permanent pattern on 
their bodies, while the men wore anklets, like the women, 
and a feather jauntily set in their hair. 

A primitive people living in a primitive country ! But 
as soon as the explorers crossed the Lundi River they were 
startled by finding strange ruins of a civilised people who 
had lived in Mashonaland ages ago, had worked gold mines 
and built fortified cities ! 

The Lundi river-god seemed to be angry at their daring 
to cross into this mysterious country, for the rushing torrent 
swept by strong and foaming ; the waggons had to be 
unloaded, and the goods had to be ferried over in a boat, 

332 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

while the empty waggons were dragged through the brawling 
torrent by double teams of groaning oxen. The shouts, the 
crack of the whip, the creaking of the wheels called forth 
friendly natives from the granite kopjes and baboons from 
the wooded hills — both alike inquisitive and curious to see 
the white strangers. On the northern side of the Lundi 
it was the men who were working in the fields, while the 
women made pots and granaries and carried water. 

Here, too, were iron furnaces in which the natives smelt 
the iron ore which they dig from the mountain side — an 
industry perhaps which may have been handed down from 
the time of Solomon and Hiram. 

Fort Victoria is situated on a bare plateau in the midst 
of swamps, and when our explorers reached it they found 
fever prevalent and bacon seven shillings a pound. Unused 
saddles met the eye on all sides, for horse sickness had 
carried off the poor animals. One man had lost eighty-six 
horses out of eighty-seven ; but oxen suffer also from mange 
and swollen legs, or from eating poisonous grasses on the 
sour veldt. 

From Fort Victoria to the scene of the great ruins at 
Zimbabwe was only fourteen miles, but Mr. Bent's waggons 
took seven days to accomplish this journey ; trees had to 
be cut down through thick forests, bridges had to be con- 
structed, and swamps had to be evaded by long detours. 

The natives were busy in the woods collecting bark, out 
of which they make bags and string, quivers and bee-hives. 

It was something like the Kentish hop-pickers, for they 
had brought their wives and children with bags of mealies ; 
and excellent hairy caterpillars were gathered from the 
boughs and greedily eaten. At night they lay in close 
contact round a fire watched by a sentry for fear of wild 
beasts. 

The Makalanyas were found to be honest and courteous, 
333- 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

but timid and cowardly ; they proved intelligent in their 
work of excavating, and many of them had faces more like 
the Arab type than the negro. Some might say they were 
relics of the lost tribes of Israel, for they were monotheists, 
observed a day of rest, sacrificed a goat to ward off pestilence, 
and practised circumcision. Their head-rests of wood, their 
musical instruments and games, their use of sour milk, and 
certain words in their language, all reminded the white 
strangers of Egyptian or Arabian customs. 

It was not until 6th June 1891 that the ox- waggons 
arrived at the wilderness of Zimbabwe, whose tall, wavy 
grass concealed the circular ruins which Mr. and Mrs. Bent 
had come so far to explore. 

Tents were put up and a thick hedge constructed ; but 
in a few days a fire burnt the grass and the huts of the 
natives, and only extreme efforts beat down the roaring blast 
before it reached the camp. 

Some sixty natives were set to work to cut down the 
jungle and clear the ruins. The chief in whose territory the 
ruins lay came down to inspect, and was received with noisy 
hand-clapping. He had no desire, he said, to oppose the 
work going on. 

Umgabe was fat, tall, dignified, and naked, save for a 
string of white Venetian beads round his neck and a loin- 
cloth. He carried a battle-axe adorned with brass wire, and 
an iron sceptre, the chiefs badge of office. Amongst his men 
were several who had arched noses, thin lips, and refined 
features generally. Evidently they were the descendants of 
some civilised race of old who had come so far to find gold. 

The diggers were paid wages — one blanket a month ; for 
this they were to work and find themselves in food. 

But they were unused to spades and picks ; they liked 
sitting in the sun better than digging. If the weather was 
wet or cold they became numb and prostrate, and would 

334 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

crouch over their fires in despair. But they soon got used 
to wielding the tools, and in four days had hacked down 
the trees and jungle within the ruin, singing as they worked 
and learning to like and trust their white master. 

Every day their women brought them paste of millet- 
meal and dainty store of caterpillars, while crowds of villagers 
from the heights around brought for sale poultry, milk, and 
honey, and sweet potatoes ; they had also chillies, capers, 
and monkey-nuts, seeds of which must have been brought 
into Africa by traders of the olden time. 

Umgabe's brother, Ikomo, formed a habit of coming 
down to spy and see what he could get for himself. He was 
on one occasion so pleased with a bowl of honey which Mrs. 
Bent had bought that when she was not looking he plunged 
his hand in and proceeded to lick his fingers, smiling com- 
placently, to the lady's great disgust. 

On pay-day, the natives, men and women, indulged in a 
wild dance and smacked their legs and stomachs as they 
capered about in their joy. Then, after each had measured 
his blanket with his neighbour's, he gaily threw it across 
his shoulders and went chattering to his hut. Most of these 
poor people had never owned a blanket before, and on wet 
days, or in the shade, they visibly suffered in their nakedness. 

There are many other ruins in Mashonaland besides that 
at Zimbabwe, but all built in the same massive style and by 
the same race ; walls constructed of huge blocks of granite 
without mortar, thirty feet thick at the base and pierced 
by narrow openings, having a herring-bone course, and 
generally near to old quartz reefs. The ruins of Zimbabwe 
are more than three thousand feet above the sea-level ; their 
form is elliptical, like some of the Arabian temples, and the 
walls are more than thirty feet high ; they have three narrow 
entrances, and are paved at the top with slabs of granite, so 
as to foi'm an easy promenade. 

335 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

Inside are very narrow passages and a perfect laybrinth 
of lanes ; the main corridor leads to the sacred enclosure on 
the south-east, which is defended by two towers. There 
are many monoliths within the circle, sacred stones like 
those worshipped by the Phoenicians, or our own circles at 
Stonehenge. 

There was no trace of a burying-ground, and this also 
recalls the Phoenician custom of removing the dead far from 
the city. 

To the south of the temple there was a flight of steps 
leading down to the gold-smelting furnaces ; but why the 
men who worked out the gold needed fortifications so huge 
is still a mystery. 

Mr. Swan believes that the religion of the people who 
constructed this temple was sun-worship ; he notes, too, 
that the arrangements were for observing only stars of the 
northern hemisphere, though it would have been easier to 
have observed the southern constellations. From this he 
inferred that they came from the north, and had been in 
the habit of observing the northern stars, and probably 
came from South Arabia. 

Nearly all the objects of interest which were dug up 
were found in the eastern temple of the fortress, and all 
decorations were cut out of soap-stone. Birds five feet high 
and perched on tall columns recalled the hawks and 
vultures consecrated to Astarte ; bowls decorated with 
hunting-scenes were discovered, and showed great artistic 
skill, but the fragments of pottery, black and glazed, were 
few. All the remains of gold-smelting furnaces were plainly 
visible ; and it is still an open question whether Masho- 
naland was the ancient Ophir or land of Punt. It is, 
however, very probable that some of the " gold of Arabia " 
came from this country. 

We cannot follow Mr. Bent through all his wanderings 
336 



J. T. BENT AND MASHONALAND 

from ruin to ruin ; those who are interested in buried cities 
cannot do better than read his book, which is well provided 
with charts and drawings. 

There are enough attractions in Mashonaland to tempt 
thither those who love beauty of scenery, a splendid climate, 
the mystery of the unknown past, the study of new races of 
men, strange types of flower and animal, and the chase 
of wild creatures who prey on other lives — which is the 
noblest form of hunting for human beings. 1 

1 From Bent's Ruined Cities in Mashonaland, by kind permission of 
Mrs. Bent and Messrs. Longmans. 



337 



CHAPTER XX 

EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER, G.C.B., &c. 

IT is difficult to select names from the long list of 
England's heroes who have worked for the world's 
progress in Africa ; but we cannot do better, perhaps, 
than finish these sketches with some short narration of 
England's influence for good in the land of the Pharaohs. 
Amongst the names of Baker, DufFerin, Colvin, Grenfell, 
Kitchener, Lloyd, Milner, and Vincent — all of whom in their 
different spheres of labour have done excellent service — we 
may single out Evelyn Baring as the one who had the 
greatest power given him to urge on reforms, and who used 
that power wisely. Foreigners saw us encamped, as it were, 
in Egypt, and turning a temporary occupation into a long 
protectorate ; and they felt aggrieved, and asked what 
business we had in that country. Well ! why are we there, 
with an English garrison at Cairo and Egyptian troops led 
by English officers ? 

A very brief resume of events will serve to explain or 
remind. Egypt was conquered in 64*0 a.b. by the Saracens 
under Caliph Omar, by the Turks in 1516, by the French 
at the end of the eighteenth century. The French were 
driven out by the British under Abercromby in 1801, and a 
Turkish force was allowed to take possession under Mehemet 
Ali Bey, who ruled with vigour, fought his Turkish over- 
lord in Syria, and was by the Sultan acknowledged Viceroy 
of Egypt. His sons and grandsons succeeded him. Under 
Said the first cutting of the Suez Canal commenced in 1856 ; 

338 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

then Ismail Pasha launched out into ambitious schemes and 
unlimited extravagance. Lord Milner in his able book, 
England in Egypt, writes of Ismail thus : " No equally 
reckless prodigal ever possessed equally unlimited control of 
equally vast resources. . . . He combined in himself every 
quality, good as well as bad, that goes to make the ideal 
squanderer. Luxurious, voluptuous, ambitious, fond of 
display, devoid of principle, he was at the same time full 
of the most magnificent schemes for the material improve- 
ment of the country. " 

When Ismail came to the throne in 1863, the debt of 
Egypt was only three millions ; by the end of 1876 that 
debt had risen to eighty-nine millions ! and the taxation of 
the land had increased fifty per cent. 

Ismail had tried hard to make Egypt splendid and 
prosperous, but he was surrounded by a gang of swindlers, 
European and Eastern, who preyed upon the country — con- 
cession-hunters, loan-mongers, Greek pawnbrokers, Syrian 
land-grabbers, all battened on the impoverished treasury. 
Ismail had to borrow money at extravagant rates ; more 
than sixteen millions were spent in making the canal, yet 
Egypt had no share in the profits when it was completed. 

At last the Khedive had to consent to the appointment 
of a commission in 1878 with full powers to examine into 
the debt. 

The report was so hopeless that Ismail was forced to 
abdicate under pressure from the British and French govern- 
ments in 1879, and Tewfik, his son, reigned in his stead. 

Then for a time, under the " Dual Control " of France 
and England, the poor oppressed fellahin, or country-folk, 
felt some relief. But the army had its grievances ; thousands 
of officers and men had been robbed of their pay, and when 
Arabi started the revolution in 1882, meaning all to be for 
his country's good, he could not direct the storm he had 

339 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

raised. " Root out the Turks ! " " Down with all Copts and 
Christians ! " " Egypt for the Egyptians ! " — such were the 
cries raised by the nationalist party. They seized Alexandria 
and forced the Khedive to flee for safety. It looked as if a 
general massacre of Christians was imminent, but in July 
a British fleet bombarded Alexandria and restored the 
Khedive ; in September Sir Garnet Wolseley stormed the 
earthworks of Tel-el-Kebir, and Arabi's army melted away 
and returned to their fields by the great river. 

Great Britain, having the ships handy, had gone to 
Alexandria merely to restore order, for she, by virtue of her 
enormous trade, was more deeply interested in the stability 
and order of Egypt than other nations. At first the English 
Government had expected that Turkey and France would 
assist in maintaining peace and order ; but while they hesi- 
tated and discussed, the fire of anarchy and revolt spread so 
rapidly that if anything were to be done to stay the course 
of massacre and ruin it must be done at once. 

Hence Great Britain stepped in alone and saved Egypt 
from civil war and ruin, and the Syrians and Copts from 
slaughter or exile. 

But after having done this, the next step was to reform 
the old Egyptian system, to introduce honest men into public 
offices, and gradually teach the native officials that every 
branch of the public service existed for the good of all, and 
not for the private gain of the officials. 

We can now turn to the early life of the man who was 
to direct and control the new government with the assent of 
the Khedive. 

Evelyn Baring, sprung from a family of German origin, 
was born in February 1841, the son of Henry Baring and of 
a daughter of Admiral Windham, having near relations in 
men who for their commercial and diplomatic distinction 
had been promoted to the peerage ; such were Lord Ash- 

340 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

burton, Baron Northbrook, and Lord Revelstoke. Evelyn 
was sent to the Ordnance School at Carshalton, where the 
scientific students for the army were educated ; thence he 
went to Woolwich Academy, and passed out in 1858 for the 
Artillery. It was a period of peace after the Indian Mutiny, 
and there seemed little chance for an ambitious officer to win 
any distinction. 

But Evelyn was sent out to Corfu as aide-de-camp to Sir 
Henry Storks just before the Ionian islands were restored to 
Greece. Sir Henry was then appointed to preside over a 
commission to inquire into the Jamaica revolt and Governor 
Eyre's drastic repression thereof, and he invited Baring to 
accompany him. 

On his return to England, Baring entered the Staff Col- 
lege, where he published a remarkable volume of Staff College 
Essays. Two years were spent in studying for his profession, 
and in 1873 he was invited by his cousin, Lord Northbrook, 
the new Viceroy of India, to accompany him as his private 
secretary. So the trained soldier passed into another sphere 
of life, and began to study the harder lessons of finance and 
diplomacy. 

He was being educated for his life's work — the regenera- 
tion of Egypt. In 1876 Lord Northbrook's viceroyalty 
came to an end, and Baring was made English commissioner 
of the Egyptian debt in the following year. He served on 
this commission for two years, was appointed English con- 
troller, with M. de Blignieres as his French colleague, and 
then, in 1880, was made Financial Member of the Council 
of India. He was now thirty-nine years old and a past- 
master in the art of dealing with debts, and fraud, and 
extravagance. 

His three years' work in India was considered so valuable 
that on his return to England he was rewarded by a Knight 
Commandership of the Star of India, and shortly after 

341 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

appointed to succeed Sir Edward Malet as Consul-General 
at Cairo, with the added rank of Minister-Plenipotentiary in 
the Diplomatic Service. 

The financier had been transformed into a statesman and 
administrator, though possibly Sir Evelyn did not realise at 
once how great power he was now enabled to exert for the 
welfare and progress of Egypt. 

He arrived at Cairo on September 11th, just two days 
after Hicks Pasha started with his army from Khartoum to 
crush the Mahdi at El-Obeid in the Sudan. 

It did not take Sir Evelyn long to discover that the 
finances of Egypt were as incapable of bearing the strain of 
war as her soldiers were unfitted to cope with the spearmen 
of the desert. 

But it was too late for him to recall Hicks'' army, which 
had gone on its last march to death and dishonour. 

We have the words of (TDonovan to explain the sort of 
army which Egypt could muster before it had been organised 
to fight and win by Kitchener. He says : " I am writing this 
under circumstances which bring me almost as near to death 
as it is possible to be without being absolutely under sentence 
of execution ... in company with cravens that you expect 
to see run at every moment, and leave you behind ... to 
die with a lance-head as big as a shovel through your body." 

The news of what happened to General Hicks was long 
in arriving at Cairo, for none escaped to tell the tale ; but it 
seems that they were surrounded and annihilated by the 
Dervishes on November 5th. Sir Evelyn promptly advised 
the home Government that for the present the Sudan 
should be abandoned, and they instructed the consul-general 
to insist on this being done, no matter who opposed it. 

As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister, Sherif Pasha, 
had to resign over it, and Nubar Pasha took his place in 
January 1884. 

342 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

The next eighteen months were full of disasters and 
dangers for England in Egypt. Besides the envy and 
jealousy of the European Powers, who could see no symptoms 
of good in our care of Egypt, there were many untoward 
accidents to harass and perplex the rulers. 

General Baker was routed before Tokar ; Berber was 
lost ; an expedition to Suakim was not a brilliant success ; 
the Nile campaign and the fall of Gordon at Khartoum 
ended in our withdrawing our troops from Dongola in 1885. 

In consequence of all this the official class at Cairo grew 
disaffected, for they thought we should gladly " steal out of 
their presence," and they had found our control sufficiently 
irksome. The Pashas were angry because their authority 
over the fellahin had been diminished ; the foreign residents 
had lost many sources of revenue by lending money on high 
interest ; the taxes galled all alike ; the peasantry were still 
deeply in debt, because the tax-gatherer might come any day 
unexpectedly and demand ready-money, or deal out blows of 
the koorbash. So the poor wretches would borrow at sixty 
per cent., or have to surrender land and cattle. And when a 
more just system of collecting the taxes was introduced, then 
the money-lenders lost their business and raised a howl of 
disappointed greed. 

All the worry and the misunderstandings and the 
obstinate conservatism of the Egyptian officials had to be 
endured and resisted by Sir Evelyn Baring, who, however, 
was backed up by strong and loyal coadjutors, such as Sir 
Gerald Fitzgerald, Sir Evelyn Wood, the Sirdar, Sir Colin 
Scott-Moncrieff of the Irrigation Department, Sir Edgar 
Vincent, the Financial Adviser, Clifford Lloyd, the Director- 
General of Reforms, and Sir John Scott, who came from the 
High Court of Bombay to advise on the reform of the native 
courts of law. 

One by one Sir Evelyn took in hand the various depart- 
343 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

ments of State, and laboured to impart in the native officials 
some respect for honour, honesty, and industry, as well as a 
proper self-reliance. To his own British colleagues he was 
always loyal and sympathetic, upholding them when they 
deserved it, through good report and evil report ; en- 
couraging some with praise, and checking others whose zeal 
was rendering them too unpopular with the Egyptians. 

Lord Milner has shown us with what patience and tact 
the consul-general met the difficulties of the Egyptian 
problem, and how genially he discussed matters with his 
" boys," as he playfully called his subordinates, over the 
luncheon table or after dinner. 

Sir Evelyn was always a hard worker, and a great reader 
of books, from the Bible to Homer, and to the latest work 
on history or India. 

Lord Milner, who, as Sir Alfred, served under him as 
Financial Secretary in the most difficult years of the British 
occupation, has recorded the sagacity, fortitude, and patience 
of his chief: "Perhaps the most striking feature about him 
has been a singular combination of strength and forbearance. 
And he needed both these qualities in an exceptional degree. 
On one side of him were the English officials, zealous about 
their work, fretting at the obstruction which met them at 
every turn, and constantly appealing to him for assistance to 
overcome it. On the other side were the native authorities, 
new to our methods, hating to be driven, and keen to resent 
the appearance of English diplomatic pressure. What a 
task was his to steer an even keel between meddlesomeness 
and inactivity ! Yet how seldom has he failed to hit the 
right mean ... he has realised that the essence of our 
policy is to help the Egyptians to work out, as far as possible, 
their own salvation. . . . Yet on the rare occasions when 
his intervention was absolutely necessary, he has intervened 
with an emphasis which has broken down all resistance." 

344 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

Sir Edgar Vincent, too — how skilfully he arranged the 
budget, and borrowed money from grasping Europe on lower 
terms than had ever been done before ; so that a million became 
available for purposes of irrigation. Before he left Egypt, 
which was in 1889, this clever financier had left the treasury 
overflowing ; he had reformed the monetary system, and cleared 
aAvay the old coinage of all metals, ages, and countries. 

With the English occupation, two great factors in the 
recovery from debt were made possible and actual — the 
former wastefulness of the administration was checked ; the 
productive powers of the whole land were stimulated and 
encouraged. The reformation of public accounts was mainly 
due to Sir Elwin Palmer and Sir Alfred Milner. The pro- 
ductiveness of the land was increased a thousand-fold by the 
labours of Sir Colin Moncrieff, the Director of Irrigation. 
For Egypt is divided into two parts — the desert and the 
Nile ; wherever the Nile cannot flow, there gleams the sandy 
desert. In April, May, and June the water at Cairo is fall- 
ing lower and lower. In July the fields are parched and 
cracked with seams ; a sombre brown hue meets the eye, the 
leaves flutter listlessly from the thirsty trees, and the fellahin, 
languishing under the great heat, begin to look anxious and 
distressed. 

" Will God be gracious and let the waters come down 
from Assouan ? " Then, when the news comes that there is 
a rise of an inch, or two inches, near the frontier, how spirits 
revive ! God be praised 1 

It takes twelve days for that inch to float down to Cairo. 
Then day by day the Nile changes in its moods. Quicker 
goes the current beneath the bridge, deeper grows the tint 
of the great river's complexion. If you bathe in the Nile, 
you may no longer swim against the lazy stream after a week 
or two of flood. For it begins to race and swish about the 
piers in noisy fashion as if conscious of its power. From 

345 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

thirty millions of cubic metres a day the discharge has waxed 
to six hundred millions, and sometimes reaches a thousand 
millions. Yet no rain has fallen in all that land while the 
mighty river has swollen and risen in tumult some twenty 
feet. The cause of that sudden rise is two thousand miles 
away, where tropical rains and melting snows contribute their 
quota of fertilising mud and water. 

The country, which a few weeks before lay adust and 
parched, now gleams with brimming canals and boundless 
lakes. The brown -skinned boys are plunging with shouts of 
glee into the muddy, wholesome pools, while the buffaloes, 
not content to wade like ordinary cattle, have buried their 
bodies in the flood up to their necks, and murmur their deep 
content. But the officers and the men of the Irrigation 
Department are now on the qui vive, watching the embank- 
ments night and day. Every hundred yards sentinels are 
posted in huts of durra stalks, ready to give warning if any 
weak place betrays a trickle. Every night each post lights 
its lantern, and the banks on either side look like quays 
illuminated for a victory. 

At intervals of five or six miles, gangs of men are sta- 
tioned ready to repair any breach, and workmen with tools 
and timber, and loads of soil. Inspectors come riding along 
the high bank every day, reviewing the long line of fortifica- 
tions which protect the fields and villages from disastrous 
flood. Higher officials race down and up stream in their 
Government steam-yachts, husbanding the water which is the 
very life-blood of the country, and holding its excess in check. 
For the water has to be diverted into a thousand channels, 
and must be sent to the needed place at the correct time. 
The river not only waters the fields of Egypt, but also covers 
them with fertilising mud. We can see how in ancient 
days Egypt was the granary of the world in the south of 
Europe ; the land never lost its fertility. And there must 

346 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

have been clever engineers to arrange the distribution of 
flood- water two thousand years ago. 

Before the British entered Egypt, neglect had ruined 
many canals, and in the delta the salt water had converted 
millions of rich acres into desolate marshes. 

To grapple with this neglect, English engineers were 
summoned from India in the year 1884 ; but they had to 
endure a chorus of blame at first, until the success of their 
reforms shut the mouth of the reviler, for it was seen that 
every year new districts were being restored to fertility. 
Among the works which the French had set on foot was an 
enormous dam designed by Mougel Bey, situated about 
fourteen miles below Cairo and called " les Barrages." 

This dam spans the two branches of the Nile just below 
the point at which they divide, one bridge crossing the 
Rosetta branch of the Nile, and one the Damietta branch. 
The arches are so constructed that the water when high has 
a clear passage through, while the lower parts can be closed 
by iron gates when it is required to raise the level of the 
Nile at its lowest ebb. 

Mougel Bey had planned all with consummate skill, but 
after twenty years of work upon it accidents happened, settle- 
ments took place, arches were damaged ; and, as money was 
wanting to do the great repairs needed, this splendid and 
costly work was allowed to go from bad to worse, and had 
been deemed of no value. 

Sir Colin Moncrieff examined the barrage, admired the 
idea, and began talking about a plan for restoring it to use- 
ful service. All the Egyptian officials, from Nubar Pasha 
down to the youngest clerk, laughed at the mad idea. 
Egypt, they said, was not like India. But men were set to 
work under Sir W. Willcocks ; the barrage was pitched and 
mended, and when the low-water season of 1884 came round, 
two metres of water were held up, and an enormous track of 

347 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

land was added in one year to the cotton-growing district. 
Next year the irrigation engineers obtained a grant of a 
million pounds for the complete restoration of the dam, and 
two new experts came from India, Colonel Western and Mr. 
Reid. An enormous number of labourers worked night and 
day, strengthening and extending the masonry, repairing the 
floor and iron gates, so that by the low- water season of 1891 
the work was finished. 

But as this great work was nearing completion, Sir Colin 
Moncrieff heard by accident that the French gentleman who 
had planned and carried out the original barrage in 1847, 
Mougel Bey, was living in a poor flat in Cairo with his 
daughter. Seventy-six years old, forgotten by his own 
country, unknown to ours, the disappointed engineer had 
sunk into poverty and despaired of any recognition in 
this life. 

It happens that the writer of this book heard from 
Sir Colin's own lips the pathetic story of his finding the old 
man, for Sir Colin was giving a lecture to the Harrow boys 
on our work in Egypt. 

He said : "I was determined to find the poor old fellow 
and congratulate him on his original work, for we had only 
repaired and enlarged what his genius had planned and con- 
structed. So one afternoon I drove up to his lodgings and 
was asked upstairs into a small room where sat in silence 
three men and a lady. 

" I presented my card to the lady, who whispered to me in 
French : 'Is it on business, sir, you have called ? Alas ! 
my father has lately heard of the death of his son — and see ! 
there he sits speechless with grief, plunged in a sort of stupor. 1 

" ' Madame," I replied, ' in that case I will come at a 
more convenient time. My purpose had been to con- 
gratulate him on the success of his grand work on the 

barrage, but of course ' 

348 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

" The lady touched my arm — the tears were in her eyes 
as she said : ' Oh ! do not go away, sir. My father will 
perhaps be aroused if you speak to him of that. Poor 
father ! he was always thinking of that.*' 

"So I was led to the other side of the room by the 
daughter, who said : e Father, dear, here is Sir Colin 
Moncrieff, the English engineer, who has kindly come to 
tell you about your barrage. 1 

" ' Eh ? the barrage ! pray be seated, Sir Colin ; les pauvres 
barrages ! ' 

" ' No need to sigh over it now, Mougel Bey ; it is a 
splendid success ! I have come to tell you that after our 
tinkering at it, the barrage is now holding up three metres 
of water ! ' 

w Mougel Bey started up from his arm-chair, his grief 
forgotten for the moment, the fire of pride kindling in his 
eye as he called out to his two friends : ' You hear that, 
mes amis ? the dear old barrage is holding up three metres 
of water — trois metres ! ' 

" Then everybody began to speak at once. We all shook 
the old gentleman by the hand and congratulated him, 
while he could only murmur, as he wept for joy, ' Trois 
metres ! trois metres ! ' Then, of course, I had to explain 
what we had been doing in the way of repair, to all which 
he listened most attentively. 

" I then ventured to ask him if he would drive out with 
me next week and see his barrage. 

" I noticed a little hesitation as he looked down upon his 
shabby garments ; so I patted his knee and spoke encourag- 
ingly : ' Mougel Bey, I must tell you another thing. I 
have been petitioning the Egyptian Government to grant 
you a pension — it is your right, sir ; for you have saved 
Egypt a large sum in building that dam. Think of the in- 
creased area of cultivated land and the taxes that are paid 

349 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

on it. Oh ! it will come out all right ; and if you will allow 
me, I will write you out a cheque now for five hundred francs.'* 

" ' I could not think of it, Sir Colin,' the Bey interrupted. 

" ' But, my dear sir, it will not be my money — I shall 
get it out of the public works 1 department all right — you 
really must, now ! ' So, with a little persuasion from his 
friends, the old French gentleman gave in, and we arranged 
a day for our drive. 

" I will only add that I used to call every week to give 
M. Mougel a report on the progress of the work, as if to 
my chief. 

" Every week he seemed to grow younger and stronger 
and happier ; and when the Khedive honoured us with his 
presence at a formal reopening of the barrage, Mougel Bey 
and his daughter were among the guests." 

Such was the story told by the English engineer about 
the distinguished Frenchman whom fortune had so lightly 
passed over ; it gives a pleasant touch of nature to state- 
ments of material details, of weights and measures and 
irrigated acres. Perhaps if a little more of human kindness 
and sympathy had been shown by all English officials in 
their dealings with Copt and Mahometan, we in our day 
might have noticed a deeper sense of gratitude to the 
bustling stranger who had come to the Nile valley in a 
time of ruinous debt, and had by painful labour raised the 
government and people to a height of prosperity unknown 
since the days of the Pharaohs. 

We hold a position there supposed to be temporary. 
Much friction was bound to occur between the Khedive's 
ministers and our own agents ; but it never became intoler- 
able, and this was in great part owing to the patience and 
diplomacy of Sir Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer, who 
knew when to wink at a trivial obstacle, and when to adopt 
a tone of decision. 

350 



EVELYN BARING, LORD CROMER 

For instance, Lord Milner tells us that on one occasion 
when Lord Cromer wished to nominate a certain person to 
an important post, the native minister violently opposed it. 
The appointment was pressed politely by Lord Cromer, but 
the Egyptian minister flew into a passion and threatened 
to resign unless it were withdrawn. Lord Cromer, feeling 
that the man he had nominated was far the best suited for 
the post, and hearing that the Khedive himself was being 
appealed to on the matter, sent a curt message to the irate 
minister : " This is a question about which the British 
Government will stand no further trifling. " 

How did the Egyptian bear this sharp rebuff? The 
English secretary was prepared for a terrible explosion of 
wrath ; but, to his surprise, the imperious old gentleman 
merely rubbed his spectacles, shrugged his shoulders, and 
remarked, "Eh bien ! si c'est un ordre, je n'ai plus rien a 
dire." 

The Egyptian had despised the " Suaviter in modo " : 
he had the sense to surrender to the " Fortiter in re. 11 

[In part from Lord Milner's England in Egypt, by kind permission of 
Lord Milner and his publisher, Mr. Edward Arnold.] 



Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &■> Co. 
Edinburgh &> London 



FEB 13 1912 



